05 Here Be Dragons
by JonGraeme
Summary: John, Carol and Elizabeth volunteer for a seemingly futile mission to a dangerous and potentially deadly planet in the desperate hope of finding out what has happened to Stephen. Earth, they discover, has changed while they were away.
1. Prolog

**Prolog: Previously on The Tomorrow People...**

* * *

"So, you're saying, you and me, we're not human? That is nuts. How can we not be human?" Jake hadn't responded entirely sympathetically to Damon's ideas.

"We can read minds, do telekinetic stuff. You can instantaneously transport yourself from one place to another just by thinking about it, those things that you see many humans doing?"

"Sure, maybe I can work a few tricks most people can't. But I can't compose music like Mozart, or paint like Picasso either. People are different."

"But we are way more different than others."

"So what if we are? What, you saying we're some kind of sleeper aliens secretly infiltrating Earth?"

"No, I'm not saying that. Not human means we're not Homo sapiens. We're a whole new species. Homo superior."

"You think there are more of us?"

"It would make sense. If we're a new species then a lot more. Maybe it's all the kids who feel like they don't fit in. Maybe there's nothing really wrong with them, just, they are different, like us."

"Speak for yourself, geek, I fit in just fine."

"Fit in... what, with a bunch of monkeys? Because compared to us, that's what they are."

"Oh right, I've been accused of being arrogant at times, but that is over the line."

"Right. But tell me it isn't true. Tell me you don't sometimes look at people and wonder why they're all so primitive?"

"We've got a few advantages, I get that. But if you want to start claiming racial superiority then you are on dangerous ground."

"I'm not claiming that. I'm just trying to make a point. Because whether you have the balls to own up or not, I can see it in your head, we're both guilty of knowing we're better than other people."

* * *

"Which is the part I don't get." Kristen stared at them, not even attempting to conceal her puzzlement. "How did you know? How did you and Jake make contact before Stellman went after you?"

"I stumbled on the secret link between the victims."

The conversation was interrupted by the sound of an alarm going off. Not a siren or a bell, it sounded like a door alarm.

"I'll find out," Damon broke away and headed back inside. Jake had been about to argue, but the speed with which Damon had departed reminded him that right now Damon was a lot more suited to a job that required mobility.

"The four of us are telepathic," Jake continued.

~Problem, guys.~ Damon interrupted.

"What's up?" Jake asked quickly, he didn't like the tone in Damon's thoughts.

"What's what up?" Kristen was puzzled.

"It's Damon, he said something was up," Misako explained.

"But he's not here."

"No," Jake answered patiently.

"But you're talking to him?"

"Telepathy _is_ real."

"You're all totally batshit insane," she stared at them and frowned. "Only, you guys are totally serious, aren't you. Shit. Look, I might be a lot of things, but I'm not telepathic. I can't do anything like that."

"Stellman thought you could. You wouldn't have been on the list of victims otherwise."

Damon interrupted the conversation. ~Can you guys shut up a minute. Look, the protesters have broken through the cordon and have made it into the building.~

"Protestors are in the building," Jake relayed for Kristen. "Where in the building, what's our best option?"

~Across the courtyard, I'm on my way around, I'll get you through the doors on the other side. There's a bunch of locked rooms here we can hole up in.~

"I see you."

Kristen stared at them. "You act like this kind of crazy is normal for you."

Jake shrugged. "I'm not saying I'm proud of the fact or anything, but you're right, it is. We are kind of messed up like that."


	2. Episode 1

**Fish and Chips and Flying Saucers**

* * *

There was darkness. And it was kind of funky how the surface of the water sparkled in the moonlight as the waves lapped against the shore. On the whole the sea was calm, there was barely a whisper of a breeze in the air. Unsurprisingly for a late November evening the beach was all but deserted. Out to sea there was a blackness broken only by a few scant pinpricks of light coming from ships far off in the distance. On shore there were lights everywhere, a street along the sea front glowing with streetlights, a row of bars, restaurants, fish and chip shops and art galleries spilling a myriad of colors out onto the pavement.

Noise and life on one side of them, a vast and silent emptiness on the other. And in the middle Kristen, desperately hoping the moment wouldn't end. Happy, happier than she had ever been in her life, and yet it was a happiness mixed with fear and insecurity. She was afraid the moment was a dream and she would blink to find herself dragged mercilessly back into a wakeful state devoid of all the passion and laughter and life that surrounded her right now. Awake or asleep, she knew in her heart the moment couldn't last. She wanted it to last, desperately wanted a way to capture and imprison time forever in a moment that seemed almost perfect, but Kristen knew that sooner or later reality was going to have to kick in. Like every rainbow, like every sunset, the moment would be there and gone, and all she could hope to hold onto was a fleeting memory of what was.

The guys were still fixated on trying to be polite to her right now, she could sense a definite element of that, they just didn't really know her all that well, How could they? It had only been two weeks since she'd collided with them at the inquest. Polite was all she expected. She didn't consider herself the easiest of people to get to know, friends she'd had for years didn't even really know her that well. What she couldn't work out was how quickly these guys would run out of patience with her, how quickly they'd give up on just being polite.

Kristen tried to push the doubts, the insecurities out of her mind, they were in danger of spoiling the moment. Sure, maybe tomorrow everything would all go horribly wrong, but right here, right now, life was as about good as it could get, and she intended to make the most of that.

She grinned, a crazy grin of wild abandon, or at least as close to wild abandon as she'd ever managed. "I can't believe I'm doing this."

Damon smiled, him smile however was more one of bemusement. "You have to admit, though, Jake, She does have a point. Walking along the beach at eleven at night, in the dark and the freezing bloody cold, while eating fish and chips, not normal."

"Since exactly when the hell did you know anything about normality?" Jake challenged sarcastically.

That was exactly why she liked them so much, in the two weeks she'd known them, they hadn't done anything resembling normality at all. Kristen didn't want to hear about normality. Her life had been totally mind numbingly boring for sixteen years straight, and now, finally, this felt like her one chance to turn her back on that, to taste an existence that was something different, something more than the mundane expectations she'd let herself become trapped by. The last thing in the world that she wanted right now was for Jake and Damon to go all normal on her. "I want crazy, I love doing crazy. You trying to say you'd rather be home, sat in front of the TV, bored out of your tiny little minds?" Was it tempting fate to ask that?

"My mind isn't that tiny." Damon objected.

"No parts of him are _that _tiny," Jake chipped in.

Damon scowled back at Jake. At least it looked like that, but Kristen could see that the scowl was just for show, the real emotion behind it was more like an evil grin, grinning because he was thinking... Kristen wasn't sure she was supposed to have caught those thoughts. She started to blush.

"I think you need to think rude things like that much more quietly when Kristen's listening." Jake smirked, and it was Damon's turn to blush.

"I didn't mean to..." Kristen managed to stutter out. It was weird having to apologize, she'd always been able to pick up on embarrassing things like that but she'd never had to deal with people who knew she could. It also didn't help that Jake and Damon had an intensity in their interaction that left them unconcerned by sharing thoughts like that. That spooked her a little, she was vaguely aware of some the horrors they'd been through together, how that had forged their friendship, but it was an intensity between them she didn't figure she would ever fully be able to connect with, which was a lot of what was fueling her insecurity right now. It had been so much easier to deal with them when Misako was around, though. Somehow Misako seemed to balance the two of them out. But Misako was away for the weekend in Prague with her grandparents, that made for a different dynamic, one Kristen was struggling to adjust to.

Jake rescued her from her indiscretion with a thought that came from a reassuringly twisted perspective. "Alright, you want crazy. Hang around with us and you'll et crazy. I just think you need to be careful what you wish for. Crazy isn't all it's cracked up to be. And for reference, this, this isn't crazy. It's a beautiful night, the sky is clear, the moon is full, drifting on the air there's the peaceful sound of waves crashing gently against the rocks. It's buggeringly cold, but we're all suitably wrapped up and none of us have hypothermia just yet. And these are good fish and chips. Where's the crazy part? I mean, you two just don't seem to get it. What could possibly be a more normal thing to do than this?"

"Sorry, mate, I'm with Kristen, I call this crazy."

Jake stared blankly across at Damon then jovially addressed Kristen. "Damon's problem is that his life before I rescued him wasn't just normally boring, it was abnormally boring. His mother used to keep him locked up in his bedroom in a straightjacket and only allowed him out when he had to go to school or when the child protection officers came round. He's only just starting to learn about how he needs to get out more, enjoy the world, take some chances, live a little. Like right now."

"Jake's problem," Damon countered, "is that for him normal is defined so widely that it includes pretty much anything he wants it to include. Take your pick."

Kristen had no clue which way to turn. "I don't get how you two ever ended up as friends," she laughed.

"I don't remember the circumstances giving us much of a choice at the time," Damon conceded.

Jake grinned an evil grin. "The problem is, now I can't get rid of him."

"Piss off," Damon retorted, his face sullen and accusative.

And that was the part that cut Kristen up with amusement. The two of them were equally capable of putting on a face like that, a face that to the casual observer would be indistinguishable from real antagonism. But it was all play acting, there was no malice intended or perceived, the two of them were so comfortable with reading each others' underlying emotions that there was no chance of misunderstanding.

It was a familiarity that went way beyond what any normal people would have been capable of achieving in an entire lifetime, and it had taken them no more than a matter of months, but that was what it was like being telepathic. The problem was that she could see it went both ways, it wasn't going to take them any time at all to see the reality of how boring and shallow her life was and she couldn't see them sticking around much longer than that.

She was surprised it had lasted two weeks. Just two weeks since Misako, Damon and Jake had accosted her at the Stellman inquest with a laughably unbelievable story about her being telepathic, and tales of other even more insane weird shit. Tales so insane that she would have laughed at them if it weren't for the fact she really could read minds, and could see the truth in their words however crazy they sounded.

More than that it was a truth she wanted to believe in. These people were the answer to everything she knew was wrong with the world. They weren't bounded by convention, weren't even all that bounded by the laws of physics as far as she could see. If they walked away now, that would tear Kristen apart because they were the life she desperately wanted, but couldn't quite see how to catch hold of. She longed for crazy, she longed for different, she longed to see dragons

In days gone by, people had thought the world was flat. Sail too far out and you would fall off the edge of the world, stray beyond the boundaries of the everyday and the maps of the ancient mariners told you that dragons lay in wait. People lived lives constrained by the boundaries imposed on them by their own fear and ignorance. And nothing had changed since then, it didn't matter that people knew dragons were only myth and legend, they were still afraid of them. Kristen still opened up the newspaper every day to see stories of people so tied up by their misconceptions of their own limitations that they were never able to reach out and grasp the opportunities that were there for the taking. The world didn't seem to celebrate adventurers any more, the people who were different. Different like Kristen, different because the idea that there just might be dragons out there was what made her day in, day out, boring life tolerable.

Misako, Damon and Jake knew all about dragons, they lived life in a crazy, uncharted place, way off anyone's map. And Kristen wanted so badly to live right there with them. But what if they got bored of her? What if she upset them? What if she offended them? What if they just didn't like her? What if they just, just... just nothing... her fear was irrational, she knew it was, she was telepathic, she could sense what they were thinking, they didn't think any of those things. They thought she was okay, that was enough.

Enough for her to hold onto her moment of perfect contentment. She smiled to herself, munched on a chip and stared at the moon.

"You want to go there?" Jake asked, reading her thoughts.

Kristen glanced at him questioningly. He actually sounded like he was half serious, and that was exactly why she loved hanging out with them. As a kid she'd always wanted to be an astronaut, always been told it wasn't possible for ordinary people like her. Well, bullshit to them, she might be a lot of things, but ordinary was not one of them. "I'd love to visit the moon," she mused, wondering just how serious Jake was.

"It _is_ line of sight, it might be possible." Jake considered.

"It's also quarter of a million miles." Damon tried to push back with a little more practicality.

Jake didn't sound convinced by the argument. "I don't think the distance is a problem. If anything what we can't handle is the navigation."

"Surviving once we got there could be a little difficult as well," Damon added.

"You always have to piss on my parade, don't you little boy," Jake stared contemptuously at Damon.

Kristen laughed out loud. "Misako was right, it's just constant bitching with you two isn't it.

"We try," Damon reassured her.

No, Kristen contemplated, there was no better way to spend a Friday night. And even if she couldn't make the Friday night last forever, there was at least the consolation that Jake and Damon were around the whole November bank holiday weekend. Three full days to have fun doing, well, more weird stuff like they were doing right now if she was lucky. Actually she had no real clue what their plans were, she'd avoided aksing. Misako had warned her about Jake's views on making plans, and she hadn't wanted to piss him off. She wondered if there was a diplomatic way to phrase the question. "So what did you guys have in mind for tomorrow?"

She could sense Jake fighting to keep his response courteous. "Other than going waterskiing, I hadn't really planned anything. We can see what happens tomorrow."

"You intent on doing the waterskiing thing then?" Kristen was surprised, somehow she'd thought he was just joking about that.

"Yeah, why?" Jake questioned.

"On account of you only just got the plaster off from the last time you broke your leg," she suggested.

"That was not my fault."

Kristen was frustrated with herself, she didn't meant to sound so negative. It irritated the hell out of her when people told her she was over-reaching herself, now she was doing the same thing to Jake and it wasn't fair. Even if the guy's leg was still twisted at a funny angle and he was dependent on a walking stick to manage more than a few steps, it still wasn't fair to put him down. She changed her tone and tried to sound like she was being a realist rather than just sound dismissive. "I thought your knee was still at risk of giving way, the way the bones didn't heal straight."

Jake was pragmatic, he didn't seem bothered by her doubts. "They did as good a job as they could under the circumstances, yeah, it might give way again. The limp is permanent, the knee will never work properly again, but the leg brace I'm going to have to wear the rest of my life is enough to hold me together to do a bit of waterskiing. Well, probably. What the hell, I can't make it any worse, can I? I'll be okay."

"And you're okay with taking risks again so soon?"

"Risks are the price you pay for living life. I learned that the hard way."

Kristen smiled. That was the attitude, that was why these guys were so much fun to hang out with.

"Plus you got a car out of it." Damon reminded him. "Still need to work on your driving a bit, but you haven't killed me yet."

Jake raised his eyebrows cheekily. "Definitely not complaining about the car..." he fell silent, interrupted, listening intently to the looked sharply across at him, she'd sensed something too, a sensation of pain, not prolonged, not intense, just uncomfortable. There and gone. Had that been Jake?

~No, not me,~ he answered her unspoken question telepathically.

~You get it too?~ Damon seemed concerned.

Jake was more curious than concerned. ~Not someone breaking out, it was way too vague for that.~ He shook his head as it happened again. ~More than anything I would describe that as irritating.~

It came a third time. Damon hesitated, as if counting the seconds, ~It's periodic, about every four seconds. And it's too consistent. Mechanical. Telepathic mechanical. Is that even possible? Okay, stupid question.~

"I'm sensing, it's like, like a direction. Like I could reach out to it with my mind," Kristen observed.

"You want to look?" Jake challenged her.

Kristen stared back at them, they weren't joking about any more, this was serious. This was also her chance, her chance to make some kind of gesture, to prove to herself that she really was part of their world now. She could do this. She opened her mind, reached out into the silence, counting down the seconds...

~Emergency, need immediate assistance. Primary engines have failed, we're off course and flying blind. We've sustained casualties,...~ The thoughts became more fractured, more broken up. ~...shit, I don't know how to make these reports. Look, the pilot's dead, I don't know how to fly this thing, we're seriously screwed here, just, please, for God's sake, whatever you can do, we need help.~

"You hear that?" Kristen asked.

Damon sounded shaken. "I heard it. That guy was feeling scared shitless. Whatever this is, it's for real."

"So what do we do?" Kristen asked, trying not to sound as clueless as she felt.

"Buggered if I know," Jake replied flatly.

"Damaged engines, no pilot, pissed off and in trouble. Sounds to me like without help he's dead." Damon confronted them with a truth they would rather have avoided.

Jake was frustrated, he felt helpless. "But we don't know where he is is, or what we can do to help. Can you fly an airplane? Could you talk someone down in an emergency landing, even if we can talk to the guy. What the hell help are we going to be?"

"I know how to fly, light aircraft anyway." Kristen stared at them, challenging them to come up with something better.

"That's pretty impressive," Damon stated, half with admiration, half still trying to work out what the hell use that was going to be.

Jake saw no other options. "Try then."

"Right, I will." Kristen swallowed back, she was frustrated, she hadn't meant to sound so pissy, she could see the guys were right, there was probably bugger all she could do, but she had to try.

So much for wanting the evening to last forever.

She emptied her mind and shouted out into the darkness.

~Hello, my name is Kristen Walker, I'm responding to the emergency distress call. How can we assist you? What assistance do you need? I know how to fly, maybe I can help you take the controls.~

Even as she said it, she couldn't convince herself she meant it. The futility of what she was proposing was staggering, beyond desperation. Unless the guy just happened to be in a Piper Warrior airplane then her assistance wasn't going to be much use at all, not that he would know that. Was that all she could do, give the guy some false hope to keep him getting too freaked out in the moments before he died?

~Ku-esten,~ the guy was sobbing now, Kristen started to feel intensely guilty, she could sense him desperately latching onto a hope she knew was false. ~Hold on, there's just about enough power left to engage the inertial damping subsystem for a couple of time units. Can you see where I am? Can you really fly this thing?~

"Inertial what-the-bollocks?" Damon glanced at the others, puzzled.

"I don't know." She was out of her depth. "I can't help him. He thinks I can help and I can't." Kristen was getting herself distressed.

Jake tried to stay clear of the I-told-you-so, there was no point making things worse. "See where he is, if all you can do is be there with him in spirit, maybe that's all, you know, do what you can. No one expects the impossible of you, even us."

Kristen looked at Jake, forcing out a weak smile. He certainly knew what to say to make her feel better. She closed her eyes and tried to reach out again. ~Show me where you are. If I can be there for you, whatever I can do, I will,~ she sent, managing to sound more confident than she felt.

The images came to her slowly. She could see, see through the eyes of the guy who was up there somewhere in trouble. There was smoke everywhere, it was kind of tough to see much at all through the smoke. It seemed wrong somehow, bigger inside than she expected for a light airplane. Room to stand up? That was more than a little wrong.

~There, you see? You can jaunt there, there's space, I'll help you. We don't have much time, I don't know how long the dampers will hold out. You have to jump, now or never.~

Kristen felt a mind connecting with hers, she was being pulled away, the whole thing took her by surprise.

Jake and Damon had exchanged a fleeting, worried glance, then had tried to reach out to her, but it was too late. Kristen had fumbled the bag of chips she was carrying and had dropped it. They looked down to see the chips falling onto the wet sand beside the empty footprints where Kristen's feet had been standing moments before.

* * *

Kristen was in a state of shock. She'd jaunted a bunch of times, she'd been practicing every day for two weeks, but it hadn't ever felt anything like this before. Until now she'd only ever been able to jaunt to places she could see. Although, technically she had been able to see this place, she'd seen it through the eyes of the guy who was in trouble. She hadn't got to that lesson yet. Actually, she had the feeling Jake and Damon hadn't exactly been aware that it was possible either. She'd wanted to go off the edge of the map, well, she'd gone totally off the edge of the map even for them.

She had no frame of reference, no clue to know how far she'd jaunted. She was surrounded by smoke, she couldn't see much. She coughed, quickly realizing it was probably toxic. Not that she expected to have time to die from that, she'd just jaunted onto a airplane that was about to crash. And it was the weirdest shit airplane she had ever seen. What the hell had she gone and done? She started to freak out, desperately trying to come up with some kind of rational response.

Could she do it again? If she'd managed to jaunt on to this airplane, could she get off again the same way? If she could connect with Jake and Damon and she could see where they were through their eyes, could she jaunt right back there? And if this guy was telepathic, then maybe he was capable of jaunting as well, maybe they could rescue him that way. It had to be possible. They'd certainly speculated there might be others like them, any number of others that hadn't made Stellman's death list. And if jaunting didn't work like that, then she was dead.

Kristen found herself wondering inappropriately whether the guy was cute. If he was, then there was at least one last thing she could maybe experience in the final few minutes of life. She choked back her anger, her frustration, her tears, there wasn't time for any of that. First thing she had to do was to find the guy.

"You there?" she shouted.

"Ku-esten?" he called back. It sounded strange, it was an odd way that he pronounced her name.

She peered through the smoke to see a young man approaching her. He was maybe a little older than her, but late teens at most. He was olive skinned, maybe Middle Eastern. He had long, jet black hair and was clean shaven. Cute. Very cute. Cute but injured. Badly burned, his tunic was torn and his face betrayed barely controlled panic.

Kristen composed herself and launched into her plan. ~We still have time, I have friends back on the ground, if I can get up here then there has to be a way we can both jaunt back down there.~

The guy looked blankly back at her as if she was mad. ~The speed this thing is traveling relative to the planet surface? I guess it would be a quick death. I thought you said you could fly this thing?~

So they couldn't jaunt back. She wasn't sure she understood the reason, but the guy was certain it wasn't a viable option, and he seemed to know what he was talking about, even if half of what he said made no sense to her.

She tried to fight back her rising desperation. Kristen could sense the guy reading her mind, there was no point trying to pretend anything. She couldn't fly the thing, she had no clue what kind of aircraft this was at all. In fact, the more she looked at it the less it even looked like an aircraft. The smoke caught her breath, she started coughing. It was also starting to get pretty hot.

The guy was still staring at her, she could sense disbelief, she could sense him getting increasingly convinced that she was a total, absolute nut case. ~You came here, you don't know how to fly this thing, you don't have an environment suit, what kind of stupid are you?~

~Maybe I can try to fly it,~ she coughed, she couldn't give up, not yet. ~You want to show me the controls?~ She looked around, she couldn't even see anything that resembled a cockpit. This was stupid, hopeless. She felt an intense surge of futility. Was there any point in even trying to work out how to fly the, whatever the hell it was she was in? Maybe she would be better off skipping to her ideas about what she wanted to spend the final moments of her life doing and see if the guy was up for it.

He seemed to be paying attention. ~Get all those clothes off, hurry, we don't have long.~

His words took her off guard. ~Right. I thought I'd at least try flying it first. You that sure I'll fail, or is there just no time left?~ she asked, feeling like he hadn't spent enough time working through all the options before giving up. At the same time he came across like he knew what he was talking about, so she started to nervously unbutton her blouse.

~Ra-dalhamun, was larger than you, but her environment suit will fit you closely enough. You need the environment suit to breathe, you need to be able to breathe to have any chance of flying this thing.~

Kristen realized she had totally misinterpreted the guy's intentions there. She could see he'd realized what she'd been thinking about, but at least he had the decency not to comment. She continued to undress. She still wasn't sure she had the faintest idea what was happening, everything was happening too quickly.

She was aware that the level of smoke was building up, it was getting difficult to breathe. The guy seemed to think the environment suit would help, she was going to have to trust his confidence. He reappeared a few moments later with another suit looking pretty much the same as the one he was wearing, which in turn looked oddly like a reject from some low budget TV show.

She didn't feel as self conscious about her lack of clothing as she felt she ought to. The lack of air was obviously getting to her. She tried to pull the environment suit on but she was too weak to manage it herself, the guy had to help her. The fact that it seemed to be partially covered in blood barely registered. She needed it to survive. Almost as soon as the suit was on she could pull in deep breaths of fresh air, Kristen quickly pulled herself together. She couldn't see where the air was coming from, how the environment suit worked, but it worked, that was all that mattered.

~Flight controls,~ she reminded him, trying to focus back on the problem at hand. ~How long do you think we have?~ She wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer to that one, but it seemed sensible to ask.

~Hull temperature is already past critical, twenty or thirty time units, not much longer than that.~

~How long is a time unit?~ She was puzzled. It it weren't for the sense of impending doom that was driving her then she'd be starting to get really worried just about now.

~Did you escape from somewhere? I mean, I'm going to die, and I'm trying to get help from some escaped Habiruan mental case.~

Kristen had no clue how long a time unit was, or what a Habiruan was, but she wasn't sure it was polite thing to call someone. But however long a time unit was, the guy's sense of urgency implied they didn't have long left. ~Flight controls. We can discuss mental states when we're dead.~ She wasn't sure if it was gallows humor, or complete denial.

~Right, through here,~ he gestured towards an archway.

Kristen wondered if there was something in the smoke that was getting her high. She had to be hallucinating, that was the only explanation for what she saw as she stepped through the archway. This was no airplane. The area she'd first jaunted to was weird, the section she had just stepped into was weirder. Weirder than weird. Out-weirded even some of the crap Damon came out with at times. There were tubes hanging from the ceiling filled with various different colored fluids, they seemed to be arranged around three hemispherical balls mounted in the ceiling directly above a small circular table that stood in the center of the room. The surface of the table was made of white plastic, it seemed to be illuminated from below, multi-colored light played across the surface. There was a black, padded, circular bench around the table, other than that the room was empty. The walls were black, the ceiling black, the floor was black. It if wasn't for the open door she would have very quickly found herself disoriented. It took minimalism to a ridiculous extreme, there were no controls, no instruments, no nothing of any kind. Just the table, the bench and the weird dangly things. Kristen stared at it blankly. What the hell was going on? What the hell kind of joke was this place?

She was snapped out of her momentary daze by the sound of metal tearing. Metal tearing, but no rumble, no vibration, no sensation of motion at all. Other than for the noise of stresses taking their toll on the structure around her it would have been silent. This wasn't an airplane, it was a submarine. Only, it wasn't a submarine, it was... she had no clue what it was. And there was someone shouting at her.

~Focus, what's wrong with you? I needed help, I got a bloody nut case. Can you fly this thing or not?~ The guy was starting to sound hysterical.

Kristen was totally failing to understand what was going on, she was getting overwhelmed by events that had no grounding in any logic she could see. ~This flies?~ she managed to stutter out telepathically.

The guy was staring at her between disgust, disbelief and helpless panic. And still she couldn't grasp what was going on.

~You want to sit here and die, fine, I'm going to try and fire off the escape capsules. At this angle of descent even I know there's zero chance of surviving planet fall, but at least I'll be bloody doing something.~ The guy was shaking his head and heading back out through the door muttering nonsensically as he departed. ~You... I don't know, you jaunt onto a spaceship that's careering out of control towards some uncharted planet, you can't fly the sodding thing, you can't help at all, you jaunted to certain death, I mean, what kind of messed up stupid in the head is that?~

Kristen sat down on the bench to try and stop her head spinning. Spaceship? There was nothing in the guy's words that came across as either untruthful or unhinged. She was on a space ship. Deep, deep down in her stomach she started to realize she'd crossed a line into a world that was as different again as the one she'd woken up in two weeks earlier when she'd found out she was telepathic.

No, she had no bloody clue how to fly a flying saucer. She hadn't exactly intended to jaunt there either, and she wasn't much sure how that had happened. What was happening around her was so messed up she wasn't even sure it was really happening, and yet every instinct was yelling at her that this was real and that she had better snap to her senses and do something about it before she ended up dead.

Kristen had to head after the guy, she didn't have much time. She tried to stand up and found herself feeling light headed, she put her hand out against the table to steady herself, the surface of the table tingled as she touched it. She blinked, and her mind didn't seem to be in the room with the table any more. It was like she was outside, she could see the darkness of space, the moon, the sun, she could see the Earth in the distance. She pulled her hand away from the table and the vision cleared. She looked out through the open door, the guy was trying to manhandle an unconscious body through into another room beyond, he had to be heading for the escape capsules he'd talked about. She swung round and sat facing the table, and cautiously placed both her hands flat against the table top.

She could sense damage reports, hull temperature rising, the stress on the hull was slowly tearing the ship apart. Sensors on the hull were feeding back alarms, she could almost feel the pain of the ship dying. Primary engines had stalled, secondary engines were trying to come online but they weren't firing up for some reason. The ship was already doing everything it could to save them, it just wasn't enough. There wasn't anything she could do. The strangest sensation of all though was how she could see through the ships cameras, as if she was floating in space. The moon was incredible, she'd never seen the moon this close up before, and the Earth, it was the most fantastic thing she had ever seen. Hey, she'd finally achieved her life's ambition to be an astronaut. It was just a pity she was heading towards the Earth seemingly intent on crashing into it.

Kristen sensed a mind joining her inside the system. She snapped back to some semblance of being able to function.

~I got Nieb-gisgal and Gulal-ursan into the escape capsules for what it's worth. What do you see?~

~Flying this thing isn't your problem. Your problem is the engines won't come online and we're heading straight for the planet.~

~Ra-dalhamun was trying to swing us around the planet, the ship's dead but she thought as we pulled away from the other side we could get the escape capsules launched safely. She had to make it close, the capsules have very little range and minimal maneuvering capability, they weren't meant for this kind of emergency. But we're drifting too close, we fire the capsules off on this trajectory, they'll almost certainly just burn up in the atmosphere. A degree or two adjustment and we'd stand a chance, but without the secondary engines that isn't going to happen.~ The guy was sounding calmer, almost resigned to his fate.

~We burn up?.~

~No, this ship will survive, just. We'll bounce off the atmosphere, get flung out into space, die a slow and uncertain death as the systems finally shut down on us.~

~Sorry I asked.~

~System override, launch capsule one.~

Kristen sensed the ship lurch momentarily. Physically she didn't feel a thing, there was no sensation of motion at all, but she could sense it through the ships sensors. She watched the fiery glow of the capsule as it was fired out into space, burning brighter and brighter. ~Who's in capsule one?~

~No one. There's a few spare. I wanted to see what happened to it, see if I want to die like that. Make it fast.~

The capsule seemed to flare, then went dark. Kristen stared at it morbidly. She wanted to run and hide, she wanted to run into her mother's bedroom, her mother always made everything all better. She wanted to be anywhere other than where she was, but there was nothing she could do about it.

There was a beeping, or, something that felt like a beeping. She had little clue what a lot of the systems she could sense in her mind really were.

~Course correction. Shit, that's it!~

~What's it?~

The guy sounded almost excited. ~Firing off the capsule, there's an equal and opposite effect on the ship. System override, launch capsule two.~

~Enough?~

~I don't know. Maybe. Just maybe. System override, launch capsules three and four. I still need to program a descent trajectory, you have any idea where a safe place to aim for is on that planet?~

Kristen watched the capsules burning up one by one. She tore her attention away to try and focus on the question she'd been asked. She looked at the image of the Earth in the distance, trying to look closer. It was like zooming in only, it was hard to describe the sensation. She could see the South of England, but somehow she didn't seem able to zoom in there any further. ~I can't, what's?~

~Capsules don't have that range, it has to be somewhere on the approach path.~

Kristen could see, something, like a light illuminating a stripe of ground that started somewhere in Russia and headed out almost to Greenland. That had to be what the guy was talking about. She tried to focus in on where it crossed over England, this time it worked, this time she could focus all the way down, down somewhere over the North West of England. The Lake District. Not where she would have chosen to land, but good enough.

~That's all we need, the systems have the target location now. Come on. Time to go.~ She felt a hand on her shoulder pulling her away from the table, pulling her gently back to the reality of the chaos inside the ship.

The place was full of smoke now, it was getting almost impossible to see. The guy led her running, back out into the corridor, he fell. She grabbed him and helped him up. He smiled weakly and hurried on, into the forward section.

Kristen saw a series of what she could only assume were the life capsules. Two were sealed, two open. The guy gestured to one of the open ones. It was pretty obvious he meant for her to climb into it, which wasn't exactly easy, there wasn't much space in there. ~Assuming we survive, how do we get out again?~ she asked.

~The green button to seal the capsule once you're in, then press the red button to get out once you land.~

~How will I know I've landed?~

~When it stops, you've landed. Don't press the red button before that. Not good if you do that.~ He smiled at her.

She stared back. He was still bloody cute despite the burns. She'd ceased making any effort to understand the situation, all she could do now was hold on for the ride. She watched him head across to the other open capsule. She didn't stop to watch, she knew what she had to do. She pressed the green button.

Jake and Damon had been right, life was never going to be normal again. Plunging towards earth in an out of control flying saucer. She counted the seconds wondering how long it would be. She only made it as far as about thirty and was totally unprepared for the sudden acceleration. Probably something so obvious the guy hadn't though it worth warning her about. Then again, the guy had been distracted, so distracted that he hadn't even bothered mentioning his name.

She'd only known him, she glanced at her watch, four minutes. Was that all it had been, four minutes? She couldn't exactly feel insulted, he had been pretty busy that four minutes. and it was such a short time when you were convinced you were about to die.

Four minutes on the other hand, Kristen noted, was a long time to have left Jake and Damon waiting back on Earth without any clue as to what had happened to her.

~Damon, Jake, you still there?~

Jake responded immediately. ~Shit, Kristen, what happened to you, where did you go? We were starting to freak out here.~

~Not sure I'm going to get back in time to finish my chips.~

~You dropped those in the water when you jaunted, not sure they're in much of a state to eat any more.~ Damon observed.

~Right, I remember, kind of.~

Jake was more interested in getting some answers. ~Where are you?~

~We got off the flying saucer. I'm in a life capsule heading out of control, who knows where. I am alive though. I think the others got away, so it was worth it, how I get home remains to be seen. How they get home is a bigger question. They kind of have slightly further to go.~

~Flying saucer?~

~Er, yeah, flying saucer.~

~And you accused us of being challenged in the normality department.~

~I promise I won't ever do that again. It's a karma thing, I doubted the weirdness of the universe, and I think the universe thought it had something to prove.~

"Shit look." Damon pointed upwards, in the sky near the moon a burning streak of light appeared to be heading rapidly closer.

~Your flying saucer?~

~Could be. It's... Oh crap, I feel...~

They lost touch with her. They continued watching as the point of light in exploded. It lit up the sky, incredible, beautiful celestial fireworks in the clear night sky. It was several moments before they remembered that was what Kristen had been trying to escape from, and it wasn't exactly clear whether she had made it out alive or not.

* * *

"Was she serious?" Damon questioned.

Jake stared blankly ahead. "I didn't sense any wind up."

"No, I didn't either."

"Glad we agree on that."

"So. Aliens." Damon observed.

They remained silent in contemplation.

Jake hesitated the way he always did before conceding an apology. "You know what you said about my screwed up definition of normality. Well, you were right."

"You worked that out did you?"

"But aliens, that's weird shit even by my definition."

Damon managed a half smile. "So what the hell do we do now then?"

Jake tried to be pragmatic. "We don't know what happened. She said something about life capsules. She might have got out. We've lost contact with each other before, happens all the time, she probably just have lost consciousness, we don't know she's in trouble."

"So we do what? Wait?" Damon as always had to push Jake into being a little more realistic. "What the hell do we tell her parents in the mean time. And don't forget, we're only here visiting for the weekend."

"If we haven't heard anything from her by the end of the weekend we can assume the worst. We have to give her some time though. That means cooking up some story to sell to her parents in the meantime, and we probably want to get that done as soon as possible. We absolutely don't want a police search or anything, the press attention at the inquest was irritating enough, we've got too many problems keeping a low profile as it is."

"I think they'll have enough on their hands worrying about the aliens, the authorities must have spotted that explosion."

"That'll keep them busy, that is definitely good for us."

"So we wait. Wait until she contacts us, and if she's suffering from concussion that could be a while."

"Right." Jake agreed, then fell silent.

Damon never liked it when Jake went silent like that. "What you thinking?"

"Aliens." Jake mused.

Damon stared blankly ahead. "You ever wonder if maybe one day we'll reach a point where life actually, physically, can't get more messed up?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah? Seriously?"

"Seriously, yeah. Just not today apparently."

* * *

Kristen began to regain a vague sentience. She felt badly battered, heavily bruised. She remembered the sensation of sudden deceleration, then nothing much more after that. Now she was lying at a funny angle, still sealed inside the capsule. There was no movement. She had been terrified for a moment that she might have overshot and landed in the Atlantic Ocean somewhere, but she figured that would have felt more floaty. If the systems had worked she was somewhere in the Lake District. Kristen glanced hesitantly at the red button, she felt pretty much in one piece but didn't feel quite up to the risk of releasing the hatch and trying to climb out just yet. Her head felt sore, she 'd tried unsuccessfully calling Jake and Damon a couple of times, she guessed she would be a little time before she be recovered enough to manage anything telepathic.

She wondered what the fate of the other three capsules had been. They were all on the same approach trajectory, the others should all be somewhere in the nearby vicinity. If these people were sensible then they ought to have equipped these things with some kind of transponder on board for locating the other pods, there ought to be an easy way for them to find each other.

Kristen tried to feel around the cramped space inside the capsule; just as well she didn't suffer from claustrophobia. The control panel detached easily, seemed to have some internal power source. It seemed the only accessible instrument on the inside of the capsule. So that was her first problem solved.

The reality of the situation slowly started to hit her. Here she was calmly thinking about aliens and flying saucers like they were real. But then from believing in telepathy and teleportation to believing in aliens didn't seem all that much of a conceptual leap. She'd just been into space in an alien flying saucer, beat that for a Friday night. It was just that she felt that she wasn't worthy. Yes she bloody was worthy. Why did she always have to put herself down? Hey, go figure, believing in aliens was easy. Believing in herself? That was the tough one. Despite everything that had happened, that was still the tough one.

She looked at her watch, it was a little after five in the morning, she'd been unconscious most of the night. Her parents were going to totally freak out on her when they found out she'd been out all night without calling them. She checked her phone, no signal, no way of leaving a message, not that she had any clue what to say to them. Maybe she'd be able to get some advice on that from Jake, Misako had told her the guy was a genius when it came to making up excuses for shit like that, and It was going to take a genius to help her talk her way out of this one.

Kristen tried to stop thinking, she was just avoiding the inevitable, she was good at that. But the air inside the capsule was getting stale and she couldn't stay in there forever. She uncertainly fingered the red hatch release button, and then pressed it firmly.

She cautiously pushed the hatch open, it was remarkably easy to shift. She couldn't see much through the opening, just darkness. The air outside had a strange musty smell to it, not much better than the stale air inside the capsule had been. Kristen pulled herself out gently through the hatch, trying not to touch the outer surface of the capsule, it was still burning hot, the thing was badly scorched from the descent. The ground outside was uneven and extremely hard, she was was in a crater of harshly dried mud, all the moisture baked out of it an instant after the impact. Kristen tried to stand up but she was feeling really shaky on her feet. That was largely because desperately hungry. But, she contemplated, this was the Lake District. With a little luck she was no more than an hour or two's hike away from somewhere with a nice little rural cafe, where she could find a decent cooked breakfast and from where she could start working out how to get home.

She stumbled to the edge of the crater from where in the moonlight she could just about see the extent of the damage. The capsule had plowed a long trench though three or four fields before coming to a final stop. No one was exactly going to miss that.

And that, she conceded, was a bigger problem. Everyone must have seen the flying saucer exploding, and if she was seen wandering about there in a silver space suit, well, there had to be a strong chance they would put two and two together and not even come close to the right answer. She wondered what the news was reporting right now, wondered what story the government had come up with to try and cover everything up. They couldn't possibly admit a flying saucer had crashed, could they? Kristen had never been much of a conspiracy theorist, the government couldn't even keep their own extra-marital affairs and tax fiddles secret, the idea they could cover up the existence of aliens was just totally implausible.

Her eyes slowly started to adjust to the darkness. In the distance she could see a second trench, or at least she could see where it had torn through a narrow road that had been winding around the fields. She had no idea which of the other three capsules it was. The sensible thing to do, if she could, was to sneak away and not have anything to do with the panic that the arrival of visitors from another planet was going to cause, but that wasn't something Kristen was capable of. Two of the crew of the flying saucer had been unconscious and in a critical condition, she had to check around, make sure the they were all safe, she wasn't sure what hope they had without help. There was no way in hell she could just walk away, and it wasn't just because the one alien guy was cute.

She'd met an alien. It was another one of those things that she'd been aware of at some level of consciousness, and yet somehow the magnitude of the revelation had managed to escape her until now. A lot of that was because it was difficult to think of the guy as alien on account of the fact that he had looked so totally human. But then appearances could be deceptive, as Kristen was acutely aware, after all, she looked pretty human herself.

Kristen climbed over the rim and headed down towards a hedgerow that provided some cover. From there she cautiously tried to peer into the darkness.

"Nu ug-aya," a voice whispered. Kristen felt a hand on her shoulder, pulling her down. As unsteady as she was she fell roughly backwards, the hand moved to cover her mouth. She struggled momentarily before getting a good look at her assailant, it was the guy from the flying saucer. He nodded reassuringly at her, gestured at his own mouth and took his hand away from hers. She remained silent, then turned to look in the direction he was pointing in. They both crouched down low.

In the distance she could see a circle of flashlights converging on the what had to be one of the other capsules. She could hear excited shouting, they'd found something. She couldn't make out much in the darkness, but she could see enough to recognize soldiers. Soldiers with guns. This was not, she concluded, a sensible place to be caught right now.

She grabbed the arm of the alien cute guy and, keeping low, they stumbled erratically off in the opposite direction.

* * *

**Not Here On A Shopping Expedition **

* * *

A light formed in the darkness. Three lights, growing stronger. Three figures materialized, solidified, and used the flashlights they were carrying to scan around the room that they now found themselves in.

It was a storeroom, low ceiling, bare concrete floor. Crates and torn cardboard boxes were stacked, randomly interspersed with empty clothes rails. It was dusty and the dust had been disturbed by the sudden arrival of the three visitors, the air appeared to sparkle as the beam of the flashlights cut through it.

"Where are we?" Carol asked, trying not to cough as the dust caught her throat. She was momentarily concerned they'd landed off target.

John reassured her. "The basement of Debenhams. Westfield, London."

"And TIM used to be about where that crate of old clothes hangers is." Elizabeth pointed with her flashlight.

"Just as well we had time to strip the lab out before the evacuation. Imagine the builders finding alien technology buried down here when they were excavating the foundations of the new shopping mall." John observed coolly.

Carol wandered around behind an empty clothes hanging rail. Forty years ago this had been her home. She reached out and touched it as if to try and convince herself it was real. As the years had passed she'd all but given up hope of ever seeing the place again, and yet in all that hopelessness she'd never stopped trying to imagine what the moment would be like, that was the eternal optimist in her. And yet now she was able to reach out and touch it, the moment was more than a little bittersweet. This wasn't how she'd imagined it. "I had fond memories of the lab," she tried to explain her feelings, "it's so sad that it's all gone. We finally get to come home, and home isn't here any more."

"Our whole world is long gone," Elizabeth concurred.

Carol could sense Elizabeth was having just as much trouble dealing with the moment as she was. "You nervous?"

Elizabeth nodded. "The world up there has changed a lot in fifteen years. We've all read the briefings, you'd think with all our experience dealing with alien cultures this ought to be easy..."

"We're going to fall into the trap of thinking we're familiar with this culture, which we are to a degree, but that will make the differences all the more disorientating." John pointed out, practical as ever.

"None of us had any illusions coming back would be easy," Carol reminded him.

Elizabeth took the cue. "But we have a job to do."

A job to do... That sentiment resonated with Carol. It was the same sentiment she'd felt fifteen years earlier when she'd volunteered to help with the evacuation. Back when the dusty basement had still been part of the old abandoned Wood Lane tube station, long before the new Wood Lane station had been built a few hundred yards further down the line. Getting over a thousand people off the planet and destroying all signs they had ever been there, all that in less than forty-eight hours, it had been a logistical nightmare. That had been her first trip home in a long time, but at least back then the place had still been recognizable as the home she remembered. Now there was nothing left at all.

But she couldn't dwell on the past. Once again she had volunteered for a mission, and once again she had a job to do. They had to get down to business.

"The shopping mall above us should make this easy," John instructed them, "I'll get us sorted out with the Earth equipment we'll need, you two need to go look for newsagents and television shops running the news."

"Looking for anything odd or out of the normal," Carol continued.

"We know the drill." Elizabeth concluded.

John nodded, they'd been through the plan a dozen times, but he obviously felt it never hurt to be over prepared. "We need to move fast. We meet back for coffee in half an hour."

"Explosions in the sky, strange meteorites," Carol managed to keep any hint of sarcasm out of her voice, "they couldn't hush that up, it should be all over the front pages of the newspapers by now. It shouldn't take us that long."

"Talking of which," John continued, "Set your timers. Thirty-four hours, then we leave, whether we've achieved our objectives or not."

Carol knew the rest. "If it gets to thirty-four hours, then we've failed anyway."

The possibility of failure was something Carol didn't much want to contemplate, she preferred to maintain a sense of optimism. The mission was the easy part of why she was there, that part had to go right.

Fifteen years earlier things hadn't worked out so well. They'd come so close, they'd managed to evacuate almost everyone safely, but there were two people that they'd been forced to leave behind. Carol had no clue what had happened to them, she didn't even know whether they were alive or dead. It was an uncertainty that frustrated her, but in her eternal optimism she had never lost sight of the hope that she would one day get the opportunity to return to Earth and try to find some answers. In all that time she had refused to believe the worst, refused to believe that they might have failed.

Now she had her chance. She was grateful her husband, Narcissa, hadn't tried to talk her out of volunteering like he had the time before. It was true that he saw it more as a mid-life crisis on her part, but he at least understood why she hadn't see the evacuation of Earth as the success that everyone else had considered it. He wasn't completely happy with her decision to volunteer, there was a certain level of risk attached to this mission and even after forty years of marriage he could still be a bit overly protective towards her at times. Mostly she liked that about him, but just this once she needed to take the risk. Not that she felt all that much at risk, she knew she was in safe company.

Carol cleared her mind of concerns and listened as John continued with the instructions. "If you feel any symptoms, anything at all, you don't even wait that long, you get out while you still can. They won't risk sending anyone more down here to save us. We're on our own."

"I still can't believe we were even allowed to come," Carol decided it was time to voice her surprise. The decision had puzzled her, she really hadn't expected the council to agree so readily but she'd avoided saying anything earlier out of fear that she said might have jeopardized their chances of getting the mission authorized.

John's response was circumspect. "We weren't exactly authorized to come. Not officially anyway."

Carol stopped her investigation of the basement and looked abruptly back at John. It was just as well that Narcissa hadn't known about that, he absolutely wouldn't have approved. Carol herself was more pragmatic, the revelation really wasn't all that much of a surprise. Although she couldn't work out how it was they had made it all the way to Earth if the mission hadn't been officially authorized.

"You know Tikno," John anticipated the unasked question.

That answer made complete sense to Carol.

"Just like the good old days then." Elizabeth smiled.

* * *

Elaine Sierpinski was feeling irritable. She'd been up most of the night and she had little or no clue when she might finally have a chance to catch some sleep. She allowed herself to be ushered into the garage workshop area not knowing exactly what to expect, and the revelation that confronted her was kind of on the disappointing side. After being woken up by soldiers banging on her door and a midnight helicopter ride North she had been expecting something a little more sexy than this at the end of her journey.

It was a place that handled vehicle repairs for a number of local farms. The tractors that had been in there had been unceremoniously towed and abandoned outside in the mud. The floor of the garage had been cleared, the area was brightly lit from above and a small number of people were setting up an array of scientific instruments at least one of which looked like it might make a particularly satisfying beeping noise if they could work out how to turn it on. Sierpinski tried not to be cynical, but it didn't look to her as if these people really had much of a clue what they were doing. It wasn't that they weren't intelligent, it was just that the situation was a little too outside the ordinary for conventional analysis. That, she figured, was why she was there.

In the center of the floor were four lozenge shapes capsules, each a little bigger than a coffin. They were black, they were rounded, they were smooth, they were boring. She'd let herself be dragged out of bed on a bank holiday weekend for this?

"So you think it's the Yanks or the Chinese behind this?" she asked, trying not to sound as dismissive as she felt.

"Neither," the scrawny Lieutenant she was being escorted by informed her.

"Right. Not even that exciting then. Where did these come from, why am I even here?"

"We've been unable to determine origin."

"Come on, you guys aren't that useless," she tried unsuccessfully not to sound too sarcastic. She was tired and letting the frustration get the better of her. "What are they?"

"They appear to be escape capsules. Each containing one occupant. Two of the occupants were recovered with the capsules, two are unaccounted for." He handed Sierpinski a set of pictures of the four crash sites.

She looked at capsules in the hanger in front of her, then down at the pictures. There was nothing obviously interesting about either. What the hell was she doing here?

Her Saturday morning was turning out to be as boring as her Friday night had been. She'd gone out on a date with a guy who had turned out to be a complete loser, she had a real skill for picking guys like that. She'd been sat in a bar wondering what the hell she was doing there, and had taken the opportunity to ditch out on him when he'd gotten up to go get another drink. Sierpinski stared dismissively at the Lieutenant, unfortunately it was going to be a lot harder to ditch out on where she was now.

Photographs, she had to get her mind back on the job in hand. There had to be a point to all this. She glanced between the two images, puzzled, it did appear to be the same capsules, but in the pictures they were in craters that suggested an impact at incredible speed. It was odd that the capsules hadn't been torn apart by the force of impact.

"The things don't even look scratched," she contemplated out loud.

"It gets stranger. The two occupants we have under observation are in pretty bad shape, but we have established the injuries occurred long before impact. There were tracks leading away from the other two capsules. All four occupants appear to have survived the landing."

"How is that possible?"

"We don't know. It's a puzzle. I assume that's why they wanted you here."

Sierpinski stared at the capsules laid out on the hanger floor. She silently accepted the coffee that was handed to her by some young soldier, but her growing confusion was already waking her up far faster than caffeine ever could. "What exactly have you been able to determine about the construction of the capsules?"

"Not much. Trajectory is consistent with visual tracking from the light show last night."

"Radar?"

"Saw nothing. The capsules seem to be manufactured from some kind of stealth material. Half the population of the country heard or saw the incident, and yet we didn't pick up a single thing on any tracking or early warning system."

"I bet that has a few suits in Whitehall scared," she contemplated. That would explain the abrupt way her morning had been interrupted.

"Has a lot of people scared," the Lieutenant confessed.

"But right now you're only guessing that the two events are even connected."

"Right now the evidence linking the events is tenuous. But the alternatives look even more tenuous."

The discussion was interrupted by the arrival of an older man with glasses carrying a report. The Lieutenant introduced him. "This is Doctor Vidal, in charge of the two patients. Doctor Vidal, this is Elaine Sierpinski who is now in overall charge of this operation."

In her mind she flinched at the introduction, but she gave nothing away. She hated being in control, that just meant she had to be responsible for all the awkward decisions that had to be made. She could do without that. If they knew how incompetent she was at picking guys to date then they would never give her responsibility for these kind of emergencies.

"I thought this was a military operation?" the Doctor challenged her.

"Civilian operation. The army are assisting with logistics, communications and technical support. The Lieutenant is with the Corps of Engineers."

She stared blankly at the Doctor, who nodded curtly back at her, he was frowning. Sierpinski wondered if he was frustrated with her or if she had walked in on an already established conflict between the Doctor and the Lieutenant. That was the last thing she needed, politics was not her forte. She had a habit of railroading people. Then again, that might be exactly what these two idiots needed right now.

"Prognosis?" She asked simply.

"I don't know. My medical opinion is that they should be dead already. Signs of major internal hemorrhaging that appears to have been cauterized in a slap hazard way without much concern for keeping the patient alive. You need to stop the bleeding, but it's no bloody good if you stop the bleeding by stopping the blood flowing. I don't understand the methodology. I think whoever was treating them was in a panic, not acting rationally. No bones broken that I could see, but with internal bleeding like that you wouldn't really expect the patient to survive. I suppose if you could stop the bleeding, hyperoxygenate the blood and slow the metabolism enough, say by inducing coma, then there's an outside chance that you could keep them alive long enough for the body to heal itself, but that is making a lot of assumptions, and it isn't obvious to me that person treating them had that foresight. Not clear how the bleeding was stopped either, no external marks on the body to indicate. I've seen some ultrasonic devices that can achieve an effect like this, but those are highly experimental right now."

She interrupted the Doctor's seemingly endless report. "So how come they're still alive?"

"Luck. Both of them seem to be in a natural coma, probably a result of the initial accident, just deep enough to slow the metabolism to a point that the reduced blood flow isn't killing them, at least not now I have them on oxygen."

"Internal hemorrhaging but no broken bones. Is that a little unusual.?"

"Bloody unusual. Of course I only know that nothing major is broken."

"X-rays, MRI scans?" she prompted impatiently.

"Neither working very well, interference from those suits they're wearing."

"Suits?" She queried. What suits. There hadn't been anything in the completely useless notes they'd given her to read on the helicopter ride over there. She hated coming into these situations and being stuck without all the information.

"They were wearing some kind of single piece jump suits when we found them," the Lieutenant started to explain.

Sierpinski cut him short, she didn't need this. "Why haven't we taken those for analysis? Cut them off and send them to the lab, then the Doctor here could do his scans and give those two a more thorough medical examination."

The Doctor interrupted the Lieutenant before he could reply. "They tried cutting the fabric and failed. Given the condition of the patients I refused to countenance manhandling them to get them out of the suits. I'll review that decision when I've had more time to assess the stability of their condition."

"What do you mean, failed to cut the fabric?"

The Lieutenant jumped in defensively. "It might look thin and flimsy, but it's fabricated from carbon nanotubes, a bit like buckypaper, but the molecular configuration is stronger. Same material that the capsule is constructed from. It would take a power saw to cut through it, and that wasn't an option the Doctor liked much. It's odd stuff. Like nothing on Earth."

"That's speculation," the Doctor dismissed him bluntly.

"And the rest of this discussion isn't?" The Lieutenant wasn't going to back down so easily.

Sierpinski held back and allowed the discussion to continue, she wanted to hear this. Letting them argue was the fastest way to find out what their problem with each other was.

The Doctor replied slowly and calmly. "What physiology I can see is completely normal. They have blood vessels where I would expect to find them, we've taken blood and hair samples, we're having those analyzed now. We should have an idea of what we're dealing with within the hour. But for the record, I expect those results to confirm we are dealing with one adult male aged around forty, and one adult female also aged around forty. Symptoms of concussion consistent with having been too close to an explosive shock-wave that knocked them off their feet, but they've already been treated for the damage that caused, internal bleeding has been stopped and they're in a coma."

"And you see that kind of medical intervention around here every day then?"

"It's a combination of a desperate act to save them on the part of the physician who preceded me, and some incredible good luck, but there is nothing supernatural or impossible about it."

Sierpinski listened in growing disbelief. She'd wanted to hear, now she didn't want to hear any more. "Whoa, reality check people. I don't believe you two are seriously having this argument."

The Lieutenant remained unabashed. "Unparalleled stealth technology. Capsules that shouldn't have survived the crash, but did. Fabric that defies explanation. Medical intervention that has kept these two patients alive completely against the odds. We are not dealing with any conventional crash landing here."

"Fine. Aliens then? Or time travelers from the future? Get a grip, Lieutenant." the Doctor dismissed the argument.

"I'm just saying we need to keep an open mind about the possibilities," the Lieutenant struck back.

Sierpinski's patience snapped. She'd had too little sleep to entertain the conversation any longer. Her so-called experts had apparently lost the plot. "Look people, this is descending into science fiction. No more speculation from anyone until we have more to go on. And let's try and be professional about this. Aliens? Lieutenant you've been watching too much Doctor Who."

She stared them down, almost daring them to challenge her further. Both remained silent.

"Recommendations?" She asked, trying to encourage sanity to retake the upper hand.

"There's a lot more we could do to investigate those suits they're wearing, if you're willing to take a few risks," the Lieutenant offered.

Sierpinski considered for a moment then shook her head, it was too early in the crisis to be taking that kind of gamble. "I don't take risks with people's lives, none whatsoever. Our best hope of finding out what this is all about is if we can talk to them. Keeping them alive is our first priority."

The Doctor simply nodded.

"Right." She concluded. "Lieutenant, how many people have access to this..." she glanced around, unimpressed at whoever had made the choice to bring the capsules here, "whatever this place is?"

"Eighteen," he answered, then tried to justify his orders against the slight her question had implied; "and I agree it's not ideal, we requisitioned the place because it was the closest useable facility to where the capsules landed. The owners have been evacuated, it's out of the way. I'd like to relocate us..."

His explanations were irrelevant, she stopped him. "It stays eighteen until we know more about what's going on. No one else is authorized to enter any of these buildings, post soldiers at the doors to keep it that way. I don't see a need for relocation at this time, right now the objective is to contain this incident. By the way, who do you report to Lieutenant?"

"Captain..."

She didn't wait for his answer. "Is your Major one of the eighteen?"

"No."

"Of the eighteen, who has the ranking seniority?"

"I do."

"Then, Lieutenant, contact your Major-general if you wish, but as of now I am placing you in charge of the military side of this investigation.""With all due respect..."

"Skip it. That will be my recommendation and the Major-general will be ordered to agree with me, he won't have a choice. In all discussions taking place outside of explicit team briefings here in this room, you will both refer to the two individuals we have in isolation as hikers in the area who were exposed to a level of radiation that exceeds recommended limits, their current prognosis being unknown."

"And with regards to the two empty capsules?" The Lieutenant queried, trying to make the best of his uncertainty over the unusual circumstances he found himself in.

Sierpinski thought for a moment. "Hikers who strayed into the area and may have been exposed. We may be able to enlist public help in tracking them down, rely on a fear of radiation to stop anyone getting too close. We can blame any oddness in their behavior as symptoms of radiation sickness. But I want them found, and I want to talk to them. And I want them unharmed." She stopped, then tried to suppress a smile as she continued none too seriously, "frankly I think you're talking bollocks, but my position here has its limits. I'm not authorized to start an interplanetary war."

"Understood," the Lieutenant replied uncomfortably.

"No one has owned up to this yet, but I'm expecting a call any time from some foreign embassy admitting they hadn't been kept informed of what their own government was secretly up to. Alien or not, they're not from around here. I know we aren't seeing evidence of radiation but I want you to assume there is a possibility of contamination. Lets not take any risks, not until I know what we're dealing with. ."

"Understood."

Elaine Sierpinski stared uncomfortably at the two of them. At least she understood the conflict between them now, and it wasn't quite as simple as she had figured it was either. Neither of them seemed the hysterical type, although the Lieutenant did seem a little too ready to jump to less than rational conclusions. She was going to have to pull files on these two people, find out exactly what their level of competence was. Something odd was going on here, that much at least was certain, but the explanation she was sure was going to turn out to be a lot more boring. In all likelihood this was going to turn out to be as meaningless an exercise as she had been afraid it would be when they'd woken her from her dreams.

* * *

Elizabeth watched as John carefully juggled his decaffeinated, skimmed milk latte and his new cellphone as he sat down at the table in the food court. She and Carol had beaten him there by several minutes and were already poring over a pile of newspapers they had picked up.

Shopping malls hadn't changed much. This one might be bigger, brighter, grander, and a lot more brash than any Elizabeth remembered, but it was still recognizably a shopping mall.

"Cellphones are definitely getting smaller." Carol observed, reaching for John's purchase.

"And cheaper, thankfully. They don't take cheques any more."

"What did you pay with?"

"The bank let me exchange the old withdrawn banknotes I had in my wallet for new ones. Not much, but it's enough to keep us going until we get to the vault. How well did you fare?"

Elizabeth held out a handful of coins, "these are the ones that nowhere will take any more. Thankfully the £1 coin is still the same. No, I didn't expect we'd be running into problems like this so quickly."

Less than an hour they'd been there and Elizabeth was struggling with the situation. It was nuts, this world had been her home for such a large part of her life, and it was tearing her apart that it should feel so totally alien to her now. It had only been fifteen years, how could so much have changed?

It didn't help Elizabeth that she could sense the others were dealing with the culture shock a lot better than she was. Of course Carol hadn't lived on Earth for over forty years, so she didn't really have much of a connection left with the place any more, and John had always been the practical one, he was way too rational to let any disconnect bother him.

The council had argued strongly against sending anyone on the mission whose emotional detachment might be in question. John had obviously conspired with Tikno to have the three of them assigned regardless. Elizabeth, however, was starting to see some wisdom in the council's reasoning. Not that she would have let go of the opportunity to come along, not under any circumstances, there was still too much unfinished business she needed to face up to.

She watched Carol inspecting the phone. Elizabeth could sense Carol was bemused by it more than anything, Carol had left Earth long before there even were mobile telephones.

"Did we really need this, or is this your old penchant for gadgets showing through?" Carol asked John. "It's not like we need telephones to stay in touch when we've got telepathy."

"We need to contact Chris, telepathy won't help there."

Carol was unconvinced."You could have used a pay phone."

"There are no pay phones any more, everyone uses these. Plus this is the primary means people use today to access the internet, which has grown a little since the one we knew. I admit this thing lacks the friendly user interface TIM has, but it does give us access to a lot of the same information."

Carol smiled. "But how well does it make strawberry milkshakes?"

"So you tried calling Chris yet?" Elizabeth interrupted. The banter was fine, but she was impatient, and John seemed to be hesitant to volunteer any information without prompting. That implied there was something he didn't want to have to tell them.

"All the dialing codes changed, I finally got through to what I think the number should be now, but it's number unavailable."

Carol shrugged, unsurprised. "There'll be current contact information in the vault, assuming he hasn't given up on us ever coming back."

"Not in his character to give up," John reassured her.

Elizabeth was still staring hesitantly at the cellphone. "Have you done a search for Stephen?" She found the question difficult to ask. It was her fault, it was all totally her fault.

"First thing I tried. No record." John replied softly.

"That's good, isn't it? If they'd found a body, it would have been reported." Carol suggested positively.

"If they'd identified him." John pointed out.

Carol wasn't going to be tempted into pessimism. "No, I'm happier knowing there's still a chance he's alive."

Elizabeth wanted desperately to believe Carol was right, but her hope was tempered by a heavy dose of realism. "As long as Chris managed to get the warning to him in time, assuming he made it back here at all. Either way, he's stuck in the Wastelands."

"But he'll still be alive." Carol pointed out.

John tried to keep things on track. "We'll know for sure soon enough, once we get to the vault, once we can contact Chris."

Elizabeth contemplated that if half the stories people told about the Wastelands were true, then Stephen would be better off dead, but that was a thought that she considered best kept to herself.

Not that there was anything they could have done differently. Everything had been so confused in the final days before the evacuation, there had been so little time to make plans. There hadn't been any way to contact Stephen and the other kid. The best they'd been able to do was to leave a message with Chris in the hope that there would be some way he could get to them in time to warn them to turn right around and head back to the Wastelands. Yes, the Wastelands were dangerous, everyone knew that, but at least there they stood a chance. If they'd stayed on Earth, that would have meant certain death. The odds favored the Wastelands, in a scary kind of way.

But Elizabeth couldn't get the feeling out of her head that it was entirely her fault he'd gone off to the Wastelands in the first place. She'd known Stephen since he was a twelve year old brat at the school she'd taught at all those years ago. She'd watched him grow up and then watched him leave home to start a new life on a distant alien world. It had all seemed to work out for a time, but Elizabeth had been the one to see that he'd never really been happy out there. He was drifting. He'd never fitted in, never settled down, and at some point he'd gone off the rails. They'd all been there for him, tried to help, but Elizabeth was the one who'd convinced him to come back to Earth, convinced him that there really was something he had to offer. And it had worked, it had worked brilliantly. He came back, he got himself involved with helping out new Tomorrow People, especially the awkward ones. He was starting to find his calling, he made friends with a bunch of the newer generation of Tomorrow People, people like Megabyte and Jade, people that the likes of John had always struggled to connect with. Finally Stephen had a purpose in life.

The problem was that Elizabeth's advice had worked too well. Stephen had been willing to do anything to help out. So one day when they'd been looking for someone to go on a journey to the mysterious Wastelands, well, Stephen had been first in line to volunteer. Then while he was gone they had evacuated the Earth, it hadn't been planned that way, but they'd effectively abandoned him.

So that was why she was back, looking for a way to assuage her guilt. She wasn't sure it was the most noble of reasons to have volunteered to help rescue the survivors from the space ship that had crashed on Earth the night before, but it was what she needed to do. She needed closure.

Elizabeth felt in danger of getting depressed. She needed herself brought back to reality, she needed to pay attention to what John was saying.

"Judging by the newspapers, looks like it's easy enough to know where we have to head though. Skelwith."

"No doubt at all." Carol concurred.

Elizabeth struggled to shake off her self doubt and made a real effort to keep the discussion practical."How do we get there without TIM to help navigate?"

"There are a couple of stone circles we can maybe use as a reference point, the place we need to end up at is right next to a lake, we should be able to focus in on that. And this iPhone has access to satellite maps, I think we can get to within a few yards of where we want to end up even without TIM."

"That sounds like hard work."

"Each time we jaunt somewhere new, we can manually program the belts to remember the location. It's not ideal, but we'll have to make do. Once we make contact with either the relay beacon or any survivors then things should become a whole lot simpler."

"We have to get to the belts first."

"Right, and things will go a whole lot more smoothly if we can get help. So, I propose we drink up, head for the vault, catch up with Chris, and then try and make it to Skelwith in time for lunch."

Carol still looked distracted, "I do hope Stephen is alright."

* * *

Elaine Sierpinski surveyed the makeshift office they'd found for her. Looked like it had formerly belonged to some kind of office administrator who treated the place like home. This was a family run business, it probably was just an extension of home for her. Assorted trinkets littered the desk, decorative mugs, several fluffy stuffed toy animals, countless photographs of young kids. It was space overwhelmed by someone else's personality.

That suited Sierpinski perfectly, it was good to feel like an intruder. This wasn't her office, she had no reason to want to feel comfortable there.

She stared at the kids in the photographs. Whoever sat at this desk normally had a real problem with the separation of home life and work life. Sierpinski very much preferred not to confuse those two aspects of her life. Okay, who was she trying to fool? She had no home life to confuse with work. Two cats and a string of failed relationships was the extent of her home life. Work was everything.

Which brought her mind back to the matter at hand. She'd been there one hour precisely, most of that spent organizing chains of communication. She was much more interested in the technical aspects of the situation, but she understood the need to back off and let her experts do the work.

Experts who were due to report about now. She poured another coffee, the office had been equipped with a very useful coffee maker. She had a feeling she was going to need something more effective than caffeine to keep her awake. Unfortunately there was no Peruvian marching powder around.

There was a knock on the open door and her two experts marched nervously into the room. Personnel reports had confirmed these were two of the best individuals in their respective fields, and yet they stood there looking uncomfortable, hesitant, like the two of them were completely out of their depth. Sierpinski had no time for their discomfort. "Get on with it. Start with the part you would rather avoid."

Doctor Vidal shrugged. "How weird shit do you want?"

"How weird shit does it get?" She dared him.

The Doctor smiled curtly. "Some odd immunoresponse anomalies that I can't explain. Not an immunodeficiency, more an overreaction to some fairly common antigens. Other than that, adult male, aged about forty, adult female, also aged about forty. Exactly as I expected."

"Immunoresponse anomalies. What's the danger of contamination?"

"I'd say the real danger is cytokine storm, I'm having a supply of Angiotensin II Receptor Blockers flown in just in case. It's not the most pressing of their problems right now."

"Lieutenant?"

"Analysis of the materials used in the construction of the capsules show an unusual isotopic signature, and there are radiation anomalies we didn't spot before."

"Okay, incompetence like that bothers me, are you saying there _is_ a radiation danger now?"

"No, not at all. In fact quite the opposite, this isn't something we would ever have looked for, it was the isotopic signature that got us interested. Potassium traces, contained no measurable level of the Potassium-40 radioisotope, which is pretty impressive. So we did a check, the radiation levels we're seeing overall are significantly below what we'd expect."

"How do you explain that?" Sierpinski challenged.

"I don't, it violates the laws of physics as we understand them, and I'm not claiming that's impossible, just unlikely."

She stared at him, he wasn't joking. She had no particular doubts about the Lieutenant's professional ability, his personnel file had reassured her there, her only remaining doubts about him related to his tendency to let his enthusiasm get in the way of his reason when it came to reaching conclusions.

"Then in the complete absence of any reasonable explanations, how about you try wild speculation?"

The Lieutenant glanced across at the Doctor and hesitated. Clearly the two of them had already discussed this. "The capsules are of extra-terrestrial origin." the Lieutenant suggested.

"I said wild speculation, not geek fap fantasy," she retorted angrily. She'd asked for that, encouraged him to go off the deep end. She needed her experts needed to get back to doing their jobs, which was pulling the evidence together. Sierpinski could handle the wild speculation part herself, and she could do it without resorting to anything quite as looney tunes as suggestions of aliens.

She finished the last mouthful of her coffee and threw the paper cup in the trash. She had two of the top experts in their fields here and neither of them seemed to have much to offer her. Sierpinski tried to focus on a practical way forward that didn't make too many assumptions about what were clearly not straightforward circumstances.

"Any evidence they have a purpose in being here?"

The Doctor shrugged. "I don't think getting injured like that in their escape from some kind of explosion was intentional. No, I think their presence here is entirely accidental."

Sierpinski took a deep breath. "Wherever they came from, someone will be missing them. We need to know who they are. We need to talk to them."

"The two I am looking at aren't going to be talking any time soon."

"Just keep them alive, Doctor," she told him.

His silence in response reflected his distaste at being talked down to in such a patronizing way.

The briefing was over. Sierpinski concluded her instructions. "Regular reports, hourly from both of you. Rest is not authorized at this time. You're dismissed."

She held the Lieutenant back as the Doctor departed. She addressed him bluntly. "Lieutenant, I'm not happy with the pace of the analysis of those capsules. Whatever equipment you need, and I mean whatever, requisition it, I'll make it happen. As for the rest of your crap, seriously, I don't need a frustrated Doctor Who fan working for me. Stick to what you know about. Now get out of here."

She watched him march stiffly away. She hated berating anyone like that, but the guy had lost his objectivity and that wasn't going to help with getting the situation resolved. Sierpinski was no good at all at tolerating idiots like that, it left her in a foul mood. She wondered for a moment if it would be better off for everyone who had to deal with her if she just had the Lieutenant replaced, but she dismissed the idea almost as quickly, getting rid of him would make for too much paperwork. Soft hearted, bloody, forever giving losers a second chance. That was the story of her life.

Aliens... That would have made getting out of bed in the middle of the night worth it. There had been a time, once, back when her career had just been starting out, that she'd had dreams of the job throwing that kind of opportunity at her. That was a lot of the reason she'd given up on having much of a life outside of work, she hadn't wanted anything or anyone to be able to get in the way of her being able to seize opportunities like that. But as the years had passed she had come to accept that those dreams were nothing more than a crazy childhood fantasy, wanting it to be true didn't make it true, she'd learned that the hard way. It was, she considered, a lesson the Lieutenant could do with learning as well. Funny though, how she still avoided having a life outside of work, just in case.

Sierpinski looked at her watch. She had an hour to wait before she'd get another report from her experts. That was time she needed to spend focussed on two survivors from the crash. Survivors who had been in good enough shape to walk away from it. They were on foot, they couldn't have wandered very far and the area was completely sealed off, it wasn't going to take an hour for the search effort to pick them up. Then Sierpinski would be able to get a few answers.

Bloody aliens, she laughed to herself.

* * *

"Excuse me, sir, room three is available."

"Thanks," John acknowledged the clerk behind the counter who had called across, then nodded at Carol and Elizabeth to follow him.

The place was more than a little seedy, it was not situated in a part of London they wanted to hang around in any longer than they had to. The management obviously tried to keep it somewhat decent in there, but they couldn't clean away the decay. The paint was peeling, the metal work in there was scuffed, it was still evident in places where graffiti had been painted over. It felt like only the grime was still holding the place together.

John, Carol and Elizabeth shuffled themselves in to the viewing room and locked the door behind them. The room was small and bare, empty except for the bench table built into the wall. John place the deposit box on the chipped fiber board table, it was one of the larger box sizes the place offered, but only as large as was practical for one person to carry. That had been intentional, it had only really been intended for one person to collect.

John hesitated. ~What do you see?~ he asked telepathically.

~No surveillance cameras, no listening devices that I can detect, no one within earshot,~ Elizabeth confirmed.

~Right, but let's avoid talking out loud unless we have to.~ John answered back.

He watched Carol take a key from her pocket and proceed to open the deposit box. With a smile she reached in and pulled out an old, slightly worn, black belt. John shared her sense of nostalgia, it was a long time since he'd seen or needed a belt like that. It was large, the strap too wide to be of any practical value, it looked more like a fashion accessory. The buckle consisted of a strange arrangement of black and white tessera, fastened with a clasp.

Carol quickly slipped the belt around her waist. ~Now I'm starting to feel less vulnerable,~ she joked. She handed identical belts to Elizabeth and John, and sat the remaining ones on the table beside the box.

John in the meantime had reached in and pulled out a folder. He flipped it open to reveal a small stack of handwritten notes. This was the part he hadn't been looking forward to, the moment of truth.

He'd had his argument with the council, then followed up with a private discussion with Tikno afterwards. The council had willingly authorized the rescue mission, but they hadn't wanted John, Carol or Elizabeth to be on the team that was sent. Tikno had been able to call in a few favors allowing the three of them to secretly switch places with the people who had ultimately been selected for the mission, right under the noses of the council. There would be hell to pay when they got back, but John intended to take full personal responsibility, Carol, Elizabeth and Tikno had nothing to worry about.

All so that he could take a side trip to this dodgy secure storage facility to try and get the answer to a question that he hadn't been able to get out of his mind for fifteen years. It was exactly the reason the council hadn't wanted to send a team of people who could end up emotionally distracted, but John was a lot more confident than the council was of his ability to take the opportunity to try and find out what had happened to Stephen without risking his objectivity, without losing sight of the fact that their primary mission was to rescue the survivors of the crash.

He took the letter from the top of the pile and opened it. For a moment he was reluctant to even look at it, knowing the answer could easily be one that didn't want to hear.

~This one's from 1999,~ he started to read.

He tried to keep his emotions in check. He knew Carol and Elizabeth could sense his reactions, he didn't want to hurt them, but the pervading frustration, disappointment and sadness he felt as he read were things that were hard to conceal. He could sense that they were desperate to know what the letter said, but hesitant to ask. He skimmed through to the end then paused. He'd had to push so hard for the mission to even go ahead, he'd known the chances had been slim, he knew the risks they were taking in even being there were disproportionate, but they'd had to try. Now it looked like he would have to break it to the others that their efforts had been in vain. He wasn't sure how the others were going to take that Carol in particular would take it hard. She'd always looked on Stephen as the little brother she'd never had. John desperately leafed through the other letters looking for something to give him better news, but there was nothing. The news about the other kid was worse. He wasn't used to being diplomatic, he prided himself on speaking his mind, but this once he knew he was going to have to speak gently.

~Stephen never made it back from the Wastelands.~

Carol had swallowed back a gasp and had turned to face away from the others. She was staring silently at the wall.

Elizabeth walked over and put a hand on Carol's shoulder to console her. She looked back at John. ~That's just the first letter, isn't it possible?...~

~If Stephen had made it back, the first thing he would have done was head back here, there would be a note from him, something. I'm sorry. He's still in the Wastelands. Alive or dead, we don't know.~ John tried not to sound snippy, but he was angry. Angry with himself mainly. Angry for allowing the three of them to get their hopes up as much as they had. Was it then cruel to try and leave them with some hope left? ~Last report says he was staying behind to look into something they'd found there, so there's still a chance, let's not lose our perspective here. We knew coming back here to look for him was a long shot. Stephen was a tough kid, as tough as they come. If anyone can survive the Wastelands, he can. I'm not about to give up on him just yet.~

Carol smiled weakly. She was clearly still upset, but John's confident reassurance had helped some. ~Yes, of course, you're right. We won't ever give up hope.~

~What about Megabyte?~ Elizabeth asked, she could sense there was something John still wasn't telling them.

~Megabyte got out of the Wastelands safely, there's a note here from Chris about him. He was taken ill within twenty-four hours of getting back, Chris never managed to catch up with him., so he didn't get the warning. There's no news of what happened to him after that, he vanished.~

~There doesn't need to be any further news.~ Elizabeth spoke the words John had been avoiding. ~None of us can survive the infection. If he didn't get the warning, then....~ she couldn't finish the sentence.

Carol shook her head, realizing her own grief was perhaps not entirely in proportion. ~That news will upset more than a few people when we get back,~ she managed to stammer out.

John flicked through to the final letter. He desperately wanted to find something positive, something to take the edge off the disappointment. There was nothing.

There was worse than nothing.

John gave up trying to be defensively optimistic. ~I'm also worried about Chris. He hasn't been here in three years, and the last number he left, it's the same one I couldn't get through to when we arrived. The number is disconnected, he hasn't lived there in years.~

~This isn't a homecoming, it's a nightmare.~ Carol stated, trying not to sound quite as lost as she felt.

~This whole world was a nightmare in the final days. That's why we had to leave.~ John reminded her. He was aware that they'd all spent the best part of the last fifteen years trying to block out memories of just how bad it had been back then, but right now there was simply no hiding from all that.

Elizabeth had grabbed another folder from the box and had tipped out an assortment of cards and documents onto the table. All that they could do now was to throw all their efforts into completing their mission and getting out of there. ~Everything appears to be valid still. No cheque books, though.~

John stared for a moment, wasn't accustomed to Elizabeth being the one to remind him of the mission. But she was right, they had to keep going, four lives still depended on them. Just like the old days, never time to stop and wonder where their lives were going, always one more alien invasion to fight off, or another mad scientist hell bent on taking over the world to foil.

He'd never once complained about that life though, never once contemplated giving up and walking away, that just wasn't in his nature. He'd always had to be the responsible one, at the age of fifteen he'd taken on the job of guiding humanity towards its future, and he'd fully accepted that in doing so he was giving up any chance of having much of a life of his own. He'd made his choice, he couldn't be bitter about that, but at the same time he couldn't help but wonder whether it had really been necessary to give his life up so completely. At the time he'd been afraid that if he had delegated too much of that responsibility then the world would have fallen apart. Well, in the end the world fell apart anyway.

After that he'd dedicated himself to serving the council, all he had now was his work. He'd never settled down, it had never felt like a priority. But the truth was that he'd never been able to let go of world he'd left behind. He was clinging on to an empty hope, the hope that he could somehow still fix everything that had gone wrong. Coming back had forced him to confront the uncomfortable reality that that wasn't ever going to happen. He knew now that when this mission was over it would be an ending in more ways than one. Everything had changed, the world had moved on, and it was time he moved on as well.

~People don't use cheque books any more. Chris mentioned that in a letter dated about seven or eight years ago, they use these debit cards almost exclusively now.~ John explained, flipping back through the folder to remind himself.

~Makes me feel so, twentieth century.~ Carol observed, her mind still clearly elsewhere.

John tried to follow Elizabeth's lead, the survivors from the crash were all that mattered now. ~We have what we need. Debit cards, identity cards...~

~Identity cards? What is this, some kind of police state now?~ Elizabeth asked.

~They aren't calling it that, but it does very much look that way from what Chris describes,~ John conceded.

Carol finally allowed herself to be drawn back to focus on the mission. ~The debris, which means the capsules, fell near to Skelwith in the Lake District. So what do we do, head up there and pretend we're going camping?~

~Camping?~ Elizabeth challenged. ~Forty years ago we might have gotten away with that.~

John had to agree. ~Now we'd just look like creepy old hippies who never managed to grow up.~

~Pensioners on a bus outing from the old folks home then,~ Carol tried.

~Might work,~ John considered.

Carol looked at him dischuffed. ~I wasn't serious.~

~We can worry about the cover story on the way. We have thirty-two hours remaining.~ Elizabeth reminded them.

John nodded in agreement They were already wasting time. ~Elizabeth, make a report back to the rescue ship, let them know what's going on. In the light of the news you're giving them I know you'll get arguments, but no one else is to come down here. No one at all. We're already risking enough lives as it is.~

Elizabeth was doubtful. ~I'll try.~

They distributed what they needed of the credit cards and identity cards and stacked what was left back in the box.

~You think we should leave a note?~ Carol asked.

John contemplated for a moment. ~We need to head back here to put everything back as it was before we leave. I think we can hold off adding any message ourselves until then.~

~We won't really know what to say until then. We need to update the contact details at the very least, no point in him trying to contact Chris on that telephone number.~ Elizabeth agreed.

~And what are we supposed to do if he can't contact Chris on any telephone number?~ Carol questioned.

~We do what we should have done in the first place, the warning should have been written down, not just left with Chris.~

~We did think about doing that, but it seemed so impersonal at the time,~ Elizabeth pointed out.

~And if we'd done it the impersonal way, Megabyte might have survived.~ John stated bluntly.

Carol sighed. ~I know, you're right, I just don't like the idea of sending Stephen back to the Wastelands like that, with only words on a piece of paper to say goodbye...~

~If something's happened to Chris then we have no other choice.~

~If something's happened to Chris then we have an even bigger problem. Chris is our only remaining link to this place,~ Elizabeth reminded them both. ~Without Chris we can't keep bank accounts and addresses active, we can't keep identity cards up to date, and in this world without those things, it doesn't look like anyone can function. These expire in four years. What do we do then?~

John wasn't in the mood to speak softly as he locked the deposit box and got ready to return it to the vault. He had one last idea he would pursue, but beyond that it was time they all faced up to the truth. They'd had a dream of guiding the Earth to a better future and none of them had never lost sight of that hope, even as fate had conspired to lead them to a life lived far, far away from their home world. But humanity wasn't going anywhere. Their sacrifice had been for nothing.

~I don't think we had any expectation we were ever coming back again after this. If we can't make contact with Chris, that just makes it certain. Life is too short to be dwelling on the past. We held out our hope about coming back here all this time for one reason and one reason alone, to find out what happened to Stephen. For better or for worse, now we know. Once we've completed this mission, we're finished here. Forever.~

Carol looked close to tears.

Elizabeth frowned at John, for Carol's sake he could have been a little less blunt.

John compounded his lack of tact. ~There's nothing tying us to this place, no reason for us to care what happens here any more. There are no Tomorrow People left on this planet, our dreams of changing the world are dead.~

* * *

**Spin Me Another Cover Story**

* * *

Damon loaded up the tray with more tomato ketchup and headed back the table. Plastic table, plastic ketchup, plastic service station. Anonymous and soulless. That worked with his mood right now, it was too early in the morning to want to deal with anything more challenging. He was already frustrated enough for the day and he hadn't even had breakfast yet.

On top of that, somehow Jake always found a way to get him doing all the dirty work. He was the one who had to go up to the counter, order breakfast, get the bloody knives and forks, carry the bloody tray to the table, while all bloody Jake had to do was sit there talking away on his cellphone. Just because the guy had a knee that was held together with bloody superglue and elastic bands.

Alright, it wasn't Jake's fault. The guy couldn't walk properly, needed a walking stick, there was no way he could handle that and carry a tray at the same time. And as obstinate as the guy was, Damon could see the frustration really did get to him at times. Even if he was equally quite capable of milking his misfortunes for the sympathy.

Damon sat down and grabbed for his Egg McMuffin as he listened to Jake try to convince his long suffering best friend at school to collude in a cover up.

"Mike, yeah, look, you know all those favors you owe me, on account of that t-shirt thing... No, I'm not ever going to forget that... Well you know how sometimes the favors get pretty odd and it's kind of like, don't ask any questions... No, I'm planning on getting myself shot again... I need you to cover for me. If anyone like my parents, or Kristen's parents, or Damon's parents come asking, I'm at Hawley Lake, waterskiing, and you did speak to me today about it. Anyone else asks, particularly anyone military looking, or just anyone behaving oddly that you don't know, just deny you even know me... Yeah, exactly like with the reporter who crashed the party... And spread the word, works better if you guys get your story consistent... No, I'm not in trouble. Not yet anyway... Yeah, I'll call you back when I get the all clear... No, Kristen isn't interested in shagging you... You never give up do you... Later, mate."

Jake was in his element, he was enjoying himself. The extent to which he was enjoying himself was not impressing Damon.

It was 7:00 AM and they'd stopped at the service station on the M40 just past Oxford. They'd been driving North since a little after 5:00 AM and had stopped for coffee, breakfast, and a chance for some damage control. Damon was trying to read a newspaper they had just bought, Jake was making a few telephone calls to try and establish the illusion they were still safely in Eastleigh with Kristen.

"No, mom, we're in the South. No where near where the news said that nuclear powered satellite fell out of orbit and crashed... No, I'm not letting Damon lead me astray... Yes, I know you're disappointed that I'm not being led astray... No, the only dangerous thing I have planned this weekend is waterskiing. No, I know you don't like that but... yes, I will be really careful. No, I know. I'll see you Monday evening. Yes, I will. Bye." Jake ended the call.

"You sure that was a good idea?"

"I didn't have to tell a single lie. We are in the South still, technically, and we aren't planning to go do anything dangerous. Stupid and irresponsible maybe, but I don't think it's all that dangerous. Anyway I'd rather tell her that now while it's still true, otherwise she'll call later when it isn't true any more, and I just don't want to have to deal with that."

Damon could never work out how the guy managed to keep all the different cover stories consistent in his head. No doubt about it, Jake had a talent for bullshit.

"So how does the rest of this deception work?"

"Fake note, which you did a pretty good job of faking I have to say, left with Kristen's mom, on the hall table, where no one but Kristen could have left it, saying she was leaving really early this morning and didn't want to disturb them. She'll believe it because that isn't the first time Kristen has done that, and because it's easy for her to call Kristen to confirm, which she will because the note is kind of vague as to what her plans for the day are."

"You work this out or make it up?"

"A bit of both. Point is, if we can get in touch with Kristen first then everything will work out. If we can't but if Kristen catches on quickly enough when her mom does call, again everything works out. The chances favor everything working out, and if it doesn't, we're in no worse crap than we already are."

Damon hesitated to point out that it was that same twisted concept of confidence that had got the guy shot in the knee. But for once Damon wasn't going to argue, he was too worried about Kristen, they were doing the right thing.

"Worry about what it costs you if you do get caught, never underestimate the consequences, and consider whether what you were doing was worth it, never overestimate the benefits," he contemplated out loud.

Jake smirked. "Wow. Did you just actually say something intelligent for a change?"

"Something Nick said to me, more than once," Damon admitted. Nick who was now a peace worker in a war zone. Damon wasn't sure if that made the advice seem all that sensible after all.

"Yeah, figures. I nearly overestimated you for a moment."

"Piss off."

"Here's the flourish though." Jake grinned and made another call. "Hello, Mrs Walker... This is Jake Laris. Kristen is supposed to be on her way to meet us, and I tried calling, but I can't seem to get through. I don't know if her phone is turned off or what, but, I know it sounds silly, but I just wanted to check I was calling the right number. What exactly is it?... Yes?... Right, no, that's the number I was trying... Okay, no, I'll keep calling her. You got the note?... Right, yes, I'll tell her, make sure she calls you back, absolutely... No, I don't think she is... Yes, I'm certainly planning on going waterskiing... I know, that was just last week... No, I didn't get the impression she had any plans to go waterskiing at all... That's alright, that's fine. We'll be back pretty late I think, but don't worry, she'll call you long before then... Okay. Thanks, bye."

"You never can leave it to chance can you?"

"Not if I can avoid it. The shit will still hit the fan if we can't get her back in time, but I just bought us twenty four hours."

"Which is not all that long, so, we need to get out of here, keep going."

"They've got the news on, I just want to see what the latest update on the breaking story is."

"What exactly are they going to say about this crashed satellite that you think might actually help?"

"I don't know, but we know it's a bullshit story, so whatever they say, we know that isn't what's happening. Might help."

"I hate your logic. I ever tell you that?"

"You seem to have a fixation about telling me that, little boy."

"Good." Damon knew there wasn't any point trying to argue with Jake, it rarely achieved anything.

* * *

Kristen opted to remain silent.

The guy hadn't spoken much, hadn't spoken anything she'd understood. It sounded like he was talking a completely alien language, which was very likely what it was. There was no way he could have known any Earth languages, the guy hadn't even known which planet he was crashing into. She studied the speech patterns, they had something of the rhythm of Japanese, but it meant nothing in Japanese that Kristen knew, the words themselves had more of an Arabic sound to them, she was pretty sure it wasn't all that Arabic either. It did sound pleasantly poetic and mysterious though, she liked it.

"Gae sir rah ud an-gigir ki tud." he said, with an expression on his face like he'd made some confession and was anxiously looking for either her approval or forgiveness. The expression faded as he either worked out she had no clue what he was saying, or at the realization this was no time for being confessional. For all his attempts at being polite there was something distant about him, he seemed almost afraid of her.

He really was acting a bit, well, alien.

He was a bloody alien. It was easy to forget that at times, incredibly easy on account of how he wasn't green and tentacled even though common sense screamed at her that he should be. As far as Kristen was concerned, all aliens ought to look more, well, alien. In a way she was kind of disappointed.

She smiled back at him blankly. For all she knew he was feeling awkward about asking her where the nearest toilets were.

They'd been able to talk fine the night before. Kristen had pretty quickly concluded that it was somehow tied up with the telepathy. The guy was definitely telepathic, for a start he'd sent out that telepathic distress call, and now she thought about it, she was pretty sure they hadn't spoken a word on the flying saucer at all, at least not out loud. Right now, though, she was pretty shaken up from the crash landing and she was finding it tough to do anything telepathic. Right now she couldn't understand a word the alien guy was saying. Kristen spoke seven languages, but none of them was alien.

She wondered if her aptitude with languages was linked with her ability to read minds. She'd been able to read minds as long as she could remember. Telepathy had to be able to bypass the language barrier somehow, which was actually pretty cool if she thought about it. It would be even cooler when her head was working and she was able to talk to the guy again.

It was a little over seven hours since they'd landed. Right after the guy had found her they'd headed away from where the search was going on. They'd avoided the helicopters, hiked for about half an hour in the dark, not really able to see where they were going, before having to give up because the both of them were just too exhausted to go on. Hadn't needed language to work that out.

The guy had been on edge since they'd arrived. More so than he had been up on the flying saucer. She'd have thought he was going to be more calm having survived the crash, but the encounter with the people hunting them seemed to have sent the guy into a downward spiral.

Finally they'd found an old stone hut, it smelled a bit in there, but it kept them sheltered. They'd managed a few hours sleep, lying on the straw, hoping they didn't get molested by sheep, but they couldn't stay there any longer. Not that Kristen exactly had any clue why they were moving or what their objectives were. That wasn't exactly something they were capable of discussing just yet. All she knew for sure was that getting caught by the military wasn't going to be a good idea. Kristen had seen all the movies, aliens always ended up dissected or experimented on.

And that could easily be Kristen's fate as well, she wasn't exactly human either. Damon had been caught and experimented on once, Kristen had read all about that in the newspapers at the time. The guy still had trouble dealing with it, she'd caught an image in Damon's mind once when Jake had reminded him about it. Whatever the guy had been through had been far worse than the newspapers had ever reported.

She didn't much like the idea of any of that being the fate for the cute alien guy she'd met. Leastways, not unless she was the one who could keep him locked up to experiment on, she contemplated completely inappropriately.

The alien guy. It was so impersonal calling him that. Sure, she wanted to be able to talk to him, but right now she would settle for just finding out his name.

It was starting to get light out, looked like it was going to be another sunny day. They needed to get moving, Kristen had to get them somewhere they could melt into the background. If she could get them both some less conspicuous clothes then it ought to be easy to pass themselves off as just another couple of foreign tourists. She still had her wallet, her cellphone, her credit cards, money wasn't going to be a problem. The phone she had checked a couple of times but it was still failing to get a signal, not that she had any clue of numbers to call either Jake, Damon or even Misako, she hadn't ever needed them. An omission she planned to fix as soon as she caught up with them again.

Kristen stood up and brushed herself down. She didn't want to know what she was brushing off. The place smelled of sheep shit, she really must have been exhausted when they'd got there not to notice that. She probably now smelled of sheep shit herself, that would make melting into the background an interesting challenge. That was something to worry about later, right now it was time to go. She pointed at the doorway but had no clue what to say.

"Gae sugu-Ges-sur." The guy gestured at her to stay where she was, that much was understandable. Wet, water, one of the words was something about being wet.

Whatever he'd said, Kristen stayed put. She figured it was chivalrous of him to go outside to check the way was safe, but given that he was the alien and she was the local, it would likely have been much safer for her to have done the reconnaissance.

She stared after him. His face looked red and raw, like he'd caught the sun, which wasn't all that likely considering it had been dark the whole time he had been there. What was really weird was that he'd looked a lot worse than that the night before. Up on the flying saucer he'd looked badly burned, his face all scarred. Now there was no sign of the burns at all, and no sign of scarring either, just an overdone suntan. The speed with which he'd healed didn't exactly seem normal. Well, not normal for humans anyway. She had no clue what was normal for aliens.

He was gone three or four minutes, his absence hadn't worried her. She didn't figure he was going to abandon her there, he didn't seem like that kind of guy, and she was a pretty good judge of character when it came to stuff like that. There was also the fact he'd left his sports bag there. Alright, it wasn't a sports bag, she wasn't really sure what the hell it was, but he carried it over his shoulder like a sports bag, so that was the closest thing she could compare it to. Anyway, this was the first time he'd let it out of his sight. He'd actually slept clinging on to it, so whatever it was, it was important to him. He'd be back for it.

She could sense him out there, vaguely, he hadn't actually gone that far. He seemed to be stopped somewhere, she couldn't get any sense of what he was up to. And it was very cool that she could sense him, because that was a good sign she was starting to get her strength back.

"Gae barsal ni-RI, Gae nu-igi-sig", he noted as he stuck his head back through the doorway.

Kristen had the disturbing impression he had said something about worrying sheep, which had to be wrong, but it was better than not sensing any meaning at all to what he was saying.

"We need to get going. I don't know about you, but, I desperately need to get something to eat," she observed, more out of hope than expectation that he would understand.

"Gu sukur?" he asked.

Kristen stared intently at him. That was something about food. Not only did she have half a clue, it sounded like he had picked up on some of what she was saying as well.

"Gu sukur ana? Mea?" he pointed out.

Kristen had to concede the guy had a point. She had no answer, she had no clue what or where they could find anything to eat. She was hoping in the light of day they could find their way to a road or something. Sooner or later they would run into someone and she could ask directions. The Lake District wasn't exactly the middle of nowhere, her experience was that you couldn't walk half an hour there without running into other tourists.

"Look, seriously, I'm so hungry I could eat a horse. Believe me, I'll find us something."

"Zae sag-eme-sig-gu Gae sud-sa," the guy said with a tone of incredulity.

He was making out like he hadn't understood the expression, but the guy had known exactly what she'd meant. He was just demonstrating an ability to be infuriatingly sarcastic.

~You don't actually eat the horses,~ she pointed out. There were a dozen questions in her head she wanted answers to, she had no clue how to approach starting to ask them. She figured on just blasting them out when the conversation gave her any opportunity. Like now. ~So you know what horses are? Even though you've never seen one.~ Kristen enquired.

The guy was hesitant. ~I see the picture in your mind when you talk about one. Four legs, generally not eaten. Odd looking things.~

Kristen smiled. Now that the telepathy seemed to be working again she figured things would very quickly get a lot easier. She peered out through the doorway where the hillside was rapidly getting lighter and cautiously headed out. It was still a touch on the misty side, the sun still low enough that the mountains in the distance were all in silhouette. The dew on the grass looked almost icy, she figured she ought to be freezing cold as flimsy as the suit she was wearing was, but she actually felt pleasantly warm. She could see much from where she was, the view across the valley was obscured. She hiked quickly up the ridge looking for a vantage point from which to try and get her bearings. Down towards the valley she could see a road, more importantly she could see a bus stop in the distance. This was going to be a lot easier than she had thought.

She started to lead the way down the hillside. The alien guy was following her, not talking much. This was her chance to start throwing more questions at him, starting with the one that was winding her up the most. ~So how about you start by telling me your name?~

~He of rare wisdom.~

"Kal-umun," she tried to say it out loud. She did a better job than he'd managed with her name. It was funny the way the telepathy translated the meaning of the name like that. Was that a conscious thing? The 'rare wisdom' thing sounded pretty cool. Kristen found herself wondering what her name sounded like in translation. ~I think my name means 'anointed one'.~

~Ahhhh. Okay. Good.~

~What?~ The guy's attitude to her had shifted quite abruptly there. He seemed a little more relaxed now.

~It helps to know that. See, in my language it means 'she who is a mighty temple to pissing guys off'. I think I'd definitely stick with your language on that one,~ he grinned nervously for the first time since they had met.

Well, she'd learned one thing. She liked his sense of humor.

* * *

Jake and Damon had finished breakfast and were once again heading North. The initial news reports that had come in overnight about the crashed satellite had been vague, but there hadn't been any doubt it had to be connected with Kristen's flying saucer. The suggestion of fragments hitting the ground somewhere in the Lake District seemed had also seemed consistent with the idea of there having been escape pods. If Kristen was still alive then that was the most logical place to find her. So on that principle they had jumped in the car to head North, even if they hadn't known exactly where North they were headed. Jake had no plan of course, but he didn't figure this was going to be outside of his ability to handle however little of a plan he had.

The stop for breakfast had been a productive one. The story was all over the front pages of the morning papers, and the news on the TV had helped fill them in on a lot of useful detail. They were reporting some military satellite, a relic from the cold war of the last century, had malfunctioned and crashed out of orbit. Mostly it had burned up, but a few radioactive fragments had hit the ground near Ambleside in the Lake District. There were no reports of anyone injured, no reports of any contamination, they were pretty sure it was all safe, but they were keeping the area cordoned off until they had done a thorough search of the area and were completely certain there was no further risk. Anyone in the area who had seen any fragments hit the ground was encouraged to report the location of what they'd seen to the police, but advised to stay away. If they had come into contact with any fragments they were advised that while the danger was not great, they should get themselves checked out by a doctor.

Jake had been pretty impressed by the cover story, almost up to his own high standards. It wasn't extreme enough to get people suspicious. It didn't blatantly overstate the dangers in a way that got people curious, it downplayed risks in a way that was more likely to play to the hysteria of people wanting to believe the danger was greater than they were admitting. It was a great story to tell if you really did want to keep people away. So now Jake had a specific destination in mind; Ambleside.

Maybe there would be some way to go waterskiing in the Lake District. He was still determined to fit that in somehow, he still had a point to prove to the Doctors who'd advised against him doing that quite so soon. Same Doctors that only a few weeks earlier had been trying to tell him he'd never be able to walk without crutches. What the hell did they know? Their problem was that they were constrained by what was humanly possible, and to Jake that simply made it a challenge.

The doctors had been good for one thing though, the level of compensation he'd been able to claim for his injuries had been based on their overly pessimistic evaluation of his condition, which had meant he'd picked up an excessively generous wodge of cash. They'd finally paid up just after the inquest, so two weeks ago Jake had bought himself a car.

It wasn't the coolest of cars, his mother had stopped him from spending as much of the money as he had wanted on it. She had insisted he keep the bulk of the cash for his college fund, and he would have argued, but he could see the value of having more money at college for drink and drugs. So the car was small, unassuming, second hand of course, but in pretty decent shape. And, as had been pointed out, it wasn't like his penis was so small he needed a flash car to compensate.

The remaining driving lessons he'd got as a birthday present that summer had finally been rescheduled, and four days ago he'd passed his test. He'd been pretty confident he would, the lessons had gone pretty well, and he'd had lots of additional practice driving stolen ambulances and illegally driving Mike's car over the summer. Driving Mike's car on the way to getting himself shot. He reluctantly conceded there was a certain amount of poetic justice there.

The best part of having the car, though, was going to be the convenience. The convenience of not having to of not having to blackmail his friend Mike every time he wanted a lift anywhere. It was almost as great as being able to teleport, and given the limitations of teleportation, most of the time the car was going to be a hell of a lot more practical. Like now, there was no way they could simply jaunt their way to Ambleside. By car, judging by the map, and assuming they didn't run into roadworks, which was a pretty big assumption, he figured they should make it there by mid morning.

Jake drove on and listened as Damon tried calling Kristen.

"No answer," Damon gave up. "No surprise really. Not the best cellphone reception in that part of the country."

Jake was amused. "Even the idea of calling her on the cellphone seems pretty strange, I got so used to telepathy, it's easy to forget the old fashioned alternatives."

"If she's that far North, she might just be out of range for telepathy as well. We never really established what the limits were there," Damon considered.

"True. Although she was able to get in touch from that escape pod in orbit, a lot further than the North of England."

"More interesting than that is how the hell she managed to jaunt into orbit. That's just so far beyond what we've been thinking we were capable of."

"Don't know, clearly we're capable of a lot more than we realize, it'll be interesting to ask about Kristen that when we find her." One of many questions they now had, Jake contemplated. There would be quite a few questions about aliens as well.

"You think she's okay?" Damon sounded unsure about asking the question.

Jake was more confident. "After driving over three hundred miles to find her? She bloody well better be."

* * *

~So, 'nu ug-aya'?~ Kristen had already decided the eighth language she would learn was going to be alien.

~'Ug-aya' is to cry out in anger. 'Nu' is a negative imperative.~

~So, what you said to me was 'don't scream'?~

~Near enough.~

That made sense. Which was good, because little else did right now. Like exactly what she was doing strolling along a hillside footpath in the late autumn sun on a Saturday morning, chatting conversationally with an alien. Well, Kristen was the one chatting conversationally, she was pretty impressed with how calm and rational she'd managed to remain considering the situation. Kal, on the other hand, was only hesitantly responding to her questions and he hadn't asked any of his own. She didn't exactly blame him, she could sense how much he was distracted by his awareness of the total deep shit he was in. The guy had just bailed out of a flying saucer that was about to crash into the Earth, he was understandably a little bit jumpy. She really felt sympathy for him.

The conversation stopped as they reached the road. It hadn't taken more than twenty minutes to get to the bus stop, but it was already clear that waiting for a bus wasn't an option. There were helicopters circling with some regularity and in that twenty minutes they'd already had to dodge two military patrols. There were no cars on the road, no other tourists. It hadn't taken much for Kristen to work out that the area would have been sealed off, and it wasn't exactly likely the busses would be running under those circumstances.

The timetable at the bus stop had been very useful though. From it Kristen had been able to work out where they were, which direction the nearest town, Ambleside, was in, and that it was a fifteen minute bus ride away. From that she could guess at how far they would have to walk before they could get something to eat. Assuming Ambleside wasn't sealed off as well, but she figured she'd worry about that problem later.

Kal had watched bemused as she'd tried calculating the distances. ~I get how the number system works, weird, but hey. Two and a half miles to Ambleside. But how far is a mile?~

Kristen was intrigued by the question. ~Telepathy doesn't help there does it?~

~No. No common point of reference.~

~Common reference.~ Kristen thought for a moment. ~Speed of light. 186,000 miles per second.~

~Right.~ Kal stared blankly back at her for a moment. ~How long is a second?~

Kristen smiled and took off her watch. She handed it to Kal who stared at it a few moments before handing it back.

~Sixty seconds in a minute?~

~Right.~

~That's a unit that makes sense to me,~ he observed. He unpinned what looked like a small circular disk from his environment suit and appeared to use it to perform a few calculations of his own. ~That's about a forty-five minute walk then, given the uneven terrain.~

~Longer if we stand here talking,~ Kristen pointed out.

The guy shrugged and headed off walking along the road. Kristen shook her head. There were moments that the guy just didn't get it. He was nervous, No, he wasn't just nervous he was scared shitless, and yet he had no concept of the dangers of walking brazenly along the middle of the road like that. Kristen caught up with him and guided him off to the side. ~You looking for trouble? We walk through the trees.~ That way was going to be a lot slower, Kristen accepted, but it was also going to be a lot safer.

~How do you live like this, always hiding?~ Kal asked hesitantly.

Kristen didn't answer immediately, she could sense a deeper meaning to the question that she wasn't quite grasping. ~I'm not always hiding,~ she replied defensively as they weaved through the forest. Spoken not very convincingly, she conceded, she hadn't even managed to convince herself.

Kal said nothing. He'd clammed up again.

Kristen reflected on the situation for a moment. Did she really need to hide? Was she just being stupid? Then again she'd just escaped from a flying saucer and there were soldiers everywhere, maybe a bit of caution wasn't such a bad thing. But that wasn't what Kal had meant. He understood the need for caution, she'd sensed the soldiers bothered him the couple of times they'd had to dodge them, but she was starting to realize that he was more afraid of her than he was of them. If he didn't trust her then they were going to have problems, but she had no clue what his issue was. She couldn't think of a delicate way to phrase the question, so she came straight out with it. ~If I freak you out so much, why are you following me?~

Kal allowed his facade of self control to slip a little. ~Because I'm alone on an alien planet, surrounded by primitives with guns, and I don't know what the hell else to do. Satisfied?~

Kristen was hit with the intensity of the emotion. The guy felt so, so alien in that moment, and yet his fears and anxieties were really not that different from hers at all.

~You want to talk about it?~ She hesitated, then continued before he had a chance to reply. ~Don't answer that, I shouldn't ask questions like that, I'm sorry.~ Kristen glanced sideways at him, there were clearly a whole bunch of things going on here that he wasn't telling her, and she wasn't sure she wanted to know.

Kal finally found the courage to confront her with the question that had been bothering him. ~What happens to me when we get to this place you're heading to?~

It wasn't a question question Kristen had been expecting, it wasn't a question Kristen had an answer to. ~I don't know. Ever since we got here I've just been running. I hadn't stopped to try and think what happens next. I just wanted to get us somewhere safe first. I figured I would worry about what happens next when we didn't have to run any more.~

She could sense her reply had reassured Kal a little, but he was still nervous, reluctant to continue. Finally he spoke again. ~I just want to know if I'm making a mistake coming with you. If I should make a run for it and take my chances on my own.~ He stopped walking. ~Look, I'm not stupid. I've seen pictures of guns before. This is a closed world isn't it? Whatever you did, whatever crime you committed, it must be something serious for you to risk hiding out in a place like this.~ The guy finally lost his composure. ~And I don't want to know. I swear if you let me go, I won't tell anyone about you. I've got eleven days, that's the limit for any rescue mission to a closed planet. If I don't send out the call, they'll abandon the search, I'll be stuck here the rest of my life. I don't want that. Let me set up the relay beacon, get off this planet, and I promise I'll keep my mouth shut. I won't tell anyone about you. You have my absolute word, read my mind if you don't believe me.~

Kristen could sense desperation. The guy was genuinely not happy about the prospect of being stuck there, and was genuinely nervous about how she was going to react. And she had no bloody clue how to react, it was obvious there was a lot more to understanding each other than just being able to communicate words.

~I'll help you with the relay beacon.~ Kristen answered. She wasn't exactly sure what she was getting herself into making an offer like that, but she genuinely meant it. The guy needed help and it was her duty to help.

Kal looked at her, puzzled. ~I don't get you. You say that, and you mean it, but you don't even have a clue what a relay beacon is. What the hell planet are you from?~

Kristen stared at him, finally starting to understand his confusion. The guy had mistaken her for one of his own people. ~I'm from this planet,~ she told him simply.

He frowned, sensing she was telling the truth but not quite grasping the meaning of what she was saying. ~Right. Very Funny. You're starting to scare me.~

~I mean it.~

~You're an alien?~ he stared at her disbelievingly. ~Feels like you should be green and have tentacles. Seriously, I've met a few aliens. None of them looked much like you.~

~Is that a complement?~

~It's... I don't know what it is. Look, the dominant life form here might look spookily like us to a degree that defies rational explanation, and I'm a medical student, I know what I'm talking about there, but they're not telepathic, they have no awareness of the though processes of others, that makes them dangerous, violent, primitive. And you're not one of them...~ he tried to work the logic through.

~No.~

~Right. So?~

~So you evolved from non-telepathic ancestors?~

~Yeah, thousands and thousands of years ago...~ Kal stopped. Kristen could sense he had finally worked it out.

~Good. Now maybe we can go find us some breakfast.~

She headed off leaving Kal trailing close behind, still trying to resolve his confusion.

* * *

"Government officials declined to comment further on the origin of the satellite that crashed out of orbit into an area near Skelwith in the Lake District. U.S. officials have strongly denied that the satellite was theirs, Russian authorities have also distanced themselves from the incident. Speculation continues that the satellite was deployed by the British government, and that after it malfunctioned it was deliberately targeted to crash in a remote area of the U.K. so as to avoid creating an international incident. Speculation also continues that the satellite was on a secret surveillance mission, and the U.S. state department is demanding a full explanation as to why they had not been notified earlier of the existence of this satellite. We take you now live to my colleague Jim Matherson who is outside the U.S. embassy. Jim,..."

Damon turned the radio off. "It's getting boring, it's getting repetitive, and they're full of crap."

"So what's new?" Jake asked cynically. "Anyway, I need you to look up Skelwith."

Damon grabbed Jake's phone and pulled up the maps. "Pretty close to Ambleside, but Ambleside is as far as we'll get in the car. The restricted area they're sweeping for radiation contamination has all the roads West out of Ambleside blocked."

Jake shrugged. "I'm hoping we won't have to go into the restricted area, I'm hoping she can handle getting out of there on her own."

"You've got a lot of faith in her abilities. It's only been a couple of weeks for her."

"I got faith in all of us, little boy. Plus, outmaneuvering a military investigation into aliens, come on. Easy as piss."

"Says the guy who only just got the cast off his leg from last time he thought that."

* * *

Kristen and Kal crouched down in the trees. The forest had thinned out and they were running out of cover. Ahead of them the road turned sharply right and crossed a bridge over a river. There was a roadblock set up on the bridge, they weren't going any further that way.

Kal studied it. ~Not very effective is it, sat there on the bridge like that. How is that supposed to stop us crossing the river?~

~They're thick, they have no clue about teleportation. Once we're across we should be safe. Then we can stop and think. And get something to eat.~

Kristen was feeling a lot more relaxed. Kal's attitude towards her had completely reversed since she'd convinced him that she wasn't some Habiruan criminal in hiding. He was still more than a little unconvinced of the whole evolution thing, but seemed willing to take her on trust for now. Kristen mentally noted that she would have to ask more about the Habiruan at some point.

But right now safety was in sight. All they had to do was get across the river, and getting across didn't look all that tough. It was game over as far as she was concerned. Well, except for the part about setting up the relay beacon. But how difficult could that be?

Kal was getting a lot more talkative as well. In fact irritatingly so, he hadn't shut up asking questions for the last half hour. ~So you didn't learn the language, learn the customs here. You actually grew up with them. Kind of like you were brought up by wild animals...~

Kristen had to catch herself from abruptly laughing out loud, they were too close to the roadblock to want to make too much noise. She could just see her mother not taking too kindly to being called a wild animal.

~What I'm saying is that I don't doubt you can pull it off, passing yourself off as one of them,~ Kal continued. ~The thing is, we don't exactly look inconspicuous right now.~

Kristen accepted the alien guy had a point. Silver jump suits were not particularly conducive to keeping a low profile. ~I got my credit card, I can fix that pretty quickly.~

~Without raising suspicions?~

Right. Buying clothes wasn't the problem, Kristen figured, coming up with a convincing story to explain away why they needed them. She smiled, that wasn't so big a problem. All she had to do was get Jake to make up a story for her, and she was pretty sure she'd recovered enough to be able to contact him.

First problems first, though. They'd cautiously made their way down to the edge of the stream, it was only about fifteen or twenty meters across and they had good visibility to the other side. Kristen was confident of her ability to make the jump despite her lack of practice. She glanced back at Kal, nodded, then fixed her gaze on the far bank and jaunted across. It was only after she was across that she realized she hadn't checked to see if Kal was okay with jaunting, she'd pretty much just made the assumption.

Her unspoken question was quickly answered. Kal walked casually along the bank and had somehow managed to jaunt while he was still walking. Her own efforts felt clumsy in comparison, she knew she still had a lot to learn.

She scrambled up the river bank with Kal and the two of them and headed into the undergrowth. A couple of minutes walk later Kristen spotted a picnic bench just out of sight of the road and, figuring they were far enough away from the roadblock to be safe, she darted off towards it. She sat down so she could concentrate more easily, concentration was going to be important, it was always harder to make contact with people the further away they were. ~Jake, you out there?~ she called out.

~You okay? We were worried about you.~ Damon called back almost instantly.

Kristen was happy, all the pieces of the puzzle were starting to come together. ~Fine. Need some advice. I jaunted past the roadblocks, but I'm wearing a silver space suit. I'm looking for advice on how to explain that away.~

~It's a radiation suit, that's what you have to tell them.~ Jake fired back.

That was exactly the kind of excuse Kristen was looking for. ~Why am I wearing a radiation suit?~

~The cover story the news is running is about radioactive debris. You strayed into the contaminated area, you got scrubbed down and decontaminated, you're fine, but your clothes were confiscated and destroyed just in case. The army couldn't exactly dump you in your underwear, but all they had to issue you were radiation suits. You're kind of pissed at them for burning that Ralph Lauren top, but at the same time you're happy that at least you aren't going to die from radiation sickness.~

~Yeah, I loved that Ralph Lauren top,~ she laughed. If only. ~That's exactly what I needed.~

~You need to call your mom as well. You got signal yet?~

~Had the cellphone off, wanted to keep the batteries good. What am I telling my mom?~

~Apologize for not calling earlier, ask if she picked up the note, tell her you're at Hawley Lake. Tell her I haven't gone waterskiing yet, tell her you think I might be chickening out. Say you think you need to go wind me up about that, and that you'll call her back later. Keep it short.~

~Why the stuff about the waterskiing?~

~It's the details that make it sound good. It's the stuff you wouldn't bother making up.~

~So how was the waterskiing?~ she asked, momentarily frustrated she wasn't there enjoying a day on the lake with them.

~Bugger knows.~ Jake replied. ~We're less than half an hour's drive from Ambleside. Figured we'd come pick you up.~

The emotion threatened to overwhelm Kristen for a moment. All that insecurity about whether they would ever give a shit about her at all. Well, they'd just driven over three hundred miles to help her out. That pretty much answered any doubts she had about whether she belonged in their world or not.

~You sure you're okay?~ Damon responded to her momentary silence.

~Yeah, need to make a move though, if I stick around here too long I might get spotted. I'll get back to you. And guys...~

~Yeah?~

~Thanks.~

Kristen had to admit Jake was exactly the wizard with excuses that Misako had told her about. Kristen wondered if she was finally ready to stop feeling so insecure and start believing they did actually mean what they said.

~Who was that you were talking to?~ Kal asked cautiously.

~Friends,~ Kristen told him, and conceded to herself that she really believed that now. She could see Kal wanted to know more, wanted to know names. The guy had a thing about names she was starting to notice. ~Jake, short for Jacob, and Damon. They're good guys, I promise, they'll help you.~

"E-akub u Dam-on, abarasa?"

~Yeah, for real.~

~Jacob you hear from time to time, but Damon is rare, even among the Habiruan. And you never hear the names together, the Habiruan consider that bad luck.~

~Bad luck, why?~

~Because of the flood.~

Kristen was puzzled by the references. How much of that was real and how much was the telepathy translating things into concepts she would be familiar with even if the literal translation made no sense. Unfortunately there wasn't time to pursue deep questions like that when they were on the run. That was more the kind of deep philosophical question to ponder over a cream tea.

~We can't stop here. We need to keep going.~ She told Kal. ~We're going to start running into humans now. Keep your mouth shut, smile, let me do the talking.~

* * *

The traffic was stationary. They'd made it as far as Windermere without any trouble, but trying to head out the other side on the A591 was proving to be more of a problem. Jake wasn't too worried, they knew Kristen was safe and out of danger, they just had to get close enough to pick her up, there wasn't much left that could go wrong.

"Are we there yet?" Damon queried, trying to keep a straight face.

There was, Jake contemplated, a down side to knowing everything was going to work out okay. Damon's sense of humor, subdued as it had been all morning, was now back with a vengeance. "You want to take a jaunt on up the road find out what the hold up is?" he suggested half seriously.

"I might well do that. Better than dying of thirst." Damon was taking every opportunity to complain about the fact that they'd run out of things to drink. The traffic jam really wasn't helping.

"Relax, little boy, when we get there I'll buy you a cream tea."

"Whoa, careful, don't get me over excited." Damon took the piss. "I mean, if I'd wanted excitement then I could have spent my weekend having endless hours of fun doing my biology essay on morphospace diversity instead of being stuck here in the car with you dying of thirst."

The traffic started up moving again for a few seconds before once more coming to a halt. They'd rounded a bend in the road and the reason for the hold up became apparent. Just ahead they were approaching a roundabout, on the far side there wasn't so much a roadblock as a military checkpoint, the effect was the same, cars were being turned back.

Damon consulted the map. "It's over an hour's hike to Ambleside from here. Take a left onto the A592, we might be able to double back along Holbeck Lane. It'll still be blocked, but we might get as far as the country park there, that would cut it down to a half hour walk."

"Radio still says restricted area starts West of Ambleside."

"So, you're going to try and blag our way past a military checkpoint." Damon sounded doubtful. "You think it would help if I got out and showed some leg?"

"I'll let you know if I think that's necessary."

The car finally pulled up to the roundabout, Jake wound the window down as a soldier of some description approached.

"Good morning sir, there's been radioactive debris fallen from a satellite, it's all over the news. The road ahead is currently blocked off at Ambleside, so we're advising everyone to take a right onto the A592 here then left onto the A66 to rejoin the A591 at Keswick. If you wanted to get on the A593 out of Ambleside we recommend you go left here, head on down to the B5285. Currently the whole area around Skelwith is sealed off for safety reasons. No real danger, but you know how it is, no one wants to take risks with radiation."

Jake smiled the evil smile he always smiled before launching into bullshit. "We actually need to get to Ambleside itself. We're supposed to be meeting friends, they're staying in a bed and breakfast there, they're not going to be in any danger are they?" Jake knew the answer already of course, the soldiers had been told to say there was no danger. And once the guy told him there was no danger, it was going to be hard to contradict himself and advise them it was too dangerous to drive on up there. If the guy had any discretion at all about letting them pass, the guy would have to exercise it. Jake had him backed into the perfect corner.

"No danger, just not much you'll be able to do there right now, the town is pretty much locked down."

"The pubs open?" Jake asked.

The soldier grinned back at him. "The pubs are open, just don't be drinking and driving." He slapped the roof of the car a couple of times, Jake wasn't sure if the guy thought it was a horse, or was trying to get the attention of the other soldier at the checkpoint. Either way, moments later Jake was waved through and they found themselves on a completely empty road.

"Somehow I never seem to tire of watching you do that." Damon observed.

* * *

"Any chance we can change into the clothes here, I'm just, a bit, you know, sick of the strange looks I'm getting wearing this." Kristen asked the sales assistant. Although they probably could have gotten changed in the middle of the street outside for all anyone would have been around to notice, it was that quiet.

"I think we can manage that. Hold on, I'll just okay it with the floor supervisor. Wait there a moment," the sales assistant nodded at her, picked up a phone on the desk. "Irene? I have a couple of kids here... no, no problem with them, look..."

Kristen had a distinct sense that calls to the supervisor about kids were generally connected with shoplifting, Kristen wasn't sure if that was a reason to be ashamed of being a kid, or cynical about the assumption all adults made that all kids were only out to shoplift.

She'd never really connected with adults all that well, no adult ever really seemed to understand her. She wondered how much of that was because she was a kid, and how much because she wasn't human.

Still, they had clothes now, Jake's story had worked perfectly, no one in the shop had been at all suspicious, despite the fact that she and Kal smelled as odd as they looked. Then again, this was the Lake District, everything had an odor of sheep about it. The assistants in the shop were just delighted to have any customers at all. Although the town was outside the exclusion zone, it was clear the most people were steering well clear. Kristen figured she'd been pretty lucky to manage to find even one shop that had bothered to open under the circumstances.

She would be glad to get out of the environment suit. It was comfortable enough to wear, but she couldn't get it out of her head that it had come straight off the corpse of the person who had died wearing it last. Still the suit had served it's purpose, it had kept her alive on the flying saucer when she couldn't breath.

It occurred to Kristen that she hadn't explained to Kal about getting changed into the clothes in the shop before they headed out. She'd talked to the sales assistant about that, but he wasn't sure how much of that Kal would have picked up on. Maybe warning him was a good idea. ~She's trying...~ Kristen started to explain.

~I heard,~ Kal interrupted.

Kristen was curious. ~How?~

~Even with non-telepaths it's possible to pick up on some of what they're thinking. Plus you could hear and understand. I picked up enough.~

~But she wouldn't be able to understand you.~

~No, she isn't telepathic. Given enough time I could pick up words she uses, learn them, use them back. But it's not exactly the fastest way of learning,~ Kal explained.

"She says that's fine." The shop assistant put the phone down. "Come on, I'll take you back to the changing rooms."

~How much of that did you get?~ Kristen asked.

~Got all the words. Didn't understand the context. Why exactly do we need a special place to change, wouldn't it be easier just to change right here?~

Kristen stared at him oddly. It was sometimes the strangest things he failed to understand. ~We're in the way here,~ she tried to explain.

~But there's no one else in the store to get in the way of...~

Kristen could see the sales assistant giving them a funny look as she led them to the changing rooms in the back. ~Just, play along. Okay?~

~Okay.~

She directed Kal into the cubicle, then closed the curtain behind him after he'd started to pull the environment suit off in full view of everyone.

"Not from around here is he?" The sales assistant whispered knowingly at Kristen.

"No." Kristen conceded.

She took the cubicle next to him and started to worry what he was going to look like when he came out, she hadn't bothered to point out to him how the clothes were supposed to be worn. She had visions of him coming out with his underwear on the outside or something equally embarrassing.

Embarrassing to her, anyway. He clearly didn't care. Kristen knew how environment suits worked, she knew he wasn't wearing anything underneath, but the idea of closing the curtain on the cubicle hadn't even occurred to him. She was going to have to educate him on the concept of the social misdemeanor.

She only wished she'd had the patience to wait, they could have got changed down some back alleyway, and then she could have watched. On the surface he looked normal, but she was desperately curious to find out if the parts she couldn't see were as normal as the parts she could. He wasn't just totally cute, he was totally hot. Missing out on that opportunity, what kind of stupid was she?

It took her only a couple of minutes to change into her new outfit, it took Kal a lot longer. But he finally emerged looking like he'd pretty much worked it all out alright. His only real mistake was that he'd left the tags on all the clothes, which was easily rectified. The effect was exactly what she had hoped for. In regular clothes he was indistinguishable from any other tourist in the Lake District.

A confused tourist. She could sense more confusion. ~You okay?~

~Yeah, mostly. I admit I don't get the customs on this planet. And, I admit I don't entirely know how to react to what you're thinking about at times. Sorry, just, too much happening too quickly.~ He looked away, not wanting to catch her eye.

Shit. He'd seen everything she'd been thinking for the last few minutes, all her inappropriate thoughts. Telepathy had it's down side, keeping random thoughts like that under control wasn't something Kristen was all that good at.

She tried not to blush, pushed the thoughts out of her head and briefly thanked the sales assistant as she made a hasty retreat towards the exit. Kal had to hurry to keep up with her.

~So where do we go eat?~ he asked gallantly, trying to change the subject as they headed out into the deserted street.

* * *

"No sign of anyone in a silver space suit." Damon observed flippantly.

"Not much sign of anyone at all," Jake agreed.

They'd finally reached Ambleside, parked the car, and were now walking along the main street. The car parks had been deserted, and the streets looked much the same. Only a few shops were still open, there was very little activity anywhere to be seen.

Damon was feeling unusually positive, for once things really had been as easy as Jake had made out. By the end of the afternoon there was a good chance they could be back on the South coast, enjoying a relatively normal, relaxing weekend.

Damon smiled at the idea of relaxing weekend. He wasn't sure when it had happened, when he'd stopped waking up afraid every morning, but he finally felt back in control of his own life. It hadn't even been a battle to get his mother to let him go spend the weekend with friends, hundreds of miles from home, like she actually trusted him. The whole world seemed an order of magnitude more sane than it had been at the height of the hysteria. Even the biology homework he still had to get finished before Tuesday morning wasn't going to worry him right now.

Damon scanned up along the street they were crossing. "I don't know, I'm not even convinced there's anywhere open up that way for her to buy clothes."

"Starting to wonder if we're going to find anywhere open for cream teas. Last three places we passed weren't even trying."

"Hey, you promised me a cream tea, and I'm holding you to that one. We can find something in Windermere if we have to. Anyway I didn't think we were planning on sticking around here any longer than it takes to pick Kristen up."

Jake grinned. "Not that we believe in the radiation story."

"Alien spaceship crashes, the radiation part might just be true," Damon pointed out.

"What about that place up there, only place on the street where the lights are on."

"Cool, lets go check it out."

They headed directly across the street without checking for traffic, it wasn't exactly tough crossing the roads when there were no cars on them at all. Although Damon still kept looking over his shoulder just in case, the place was definitely a little eerie.

"I wonder what happened to the aliens, wonder if they got away," Jake got philosophical.

"Hope so for their sake. I've been caught and experimented on myself, and I can't recommend the experience," Damon quipped, cheerfully.

"You picking up Kristen yet?"

"No. I am definitely picking up a very clear sensation of cream tea though. And crumpet."

Jake raised his eyebrows. "I like a bit of crumpet."

Damon gave him a look of disbelief. "Jake, no offense, but you wouldn't know crumpet if it ate you."

"Damon, just piss off, alright."

They took a look in the tea shop window, it was one of the larger places in town, on the corner, looked like there was space for about twenty or thirty people. A traditionally rustic old place. It was also surprisingly busy, well, surprisingly busy given that the town was pretty much deserted. Being the only tea shop in town that was open was also probably a factor there.

"Two guys together, go in and ask for cream teas, that isn't gay is it?" Damon joked.

"Only if they both go for Earl Grey. I'm having the Darjeeling, which is only an indicative of being a bit of a prat."

"What's Ceylon tea?" Damon was contemplating his options.

"That's if you're into bondage I think."

They sniggered and headed in to the tea shop.

~Hey.~ Kristen interjected telepathically.

~Hey.~ Damon replied.

~Wasn't interrupting anything was I?~

Damon glanced silently across at Jake before answering. ~Just a discussion on the declarative connotations of tea-bags with respect to personal sexual preferences and fetishes.~

Kristen smirked. ~You guys are twisted, you know that?~

~We try,~ Damon smiled.

~Look, I'm sat in a tea shop in Ambleside having cream tea with an alien survivor from the crash and...~

~An alien in a tea shop, isn't that, kind of a bit, I don't know, likely to draw attention?~ Jake interrupted,

~He might be an alien, but he looks pretty human on the outside.~

~Right. Body snatcher, shape shifter?~ Damon challenged.

Jake had a more important question on his mind. ~And what kind of tea is he drinking?~

Damon smiled. ~Right, good question. what kind of tea?~

~Earl Grey I think. Is this relevant?~

Damon glanced across at Jake as they grabbed their teas and looked around the shop for somewhere to sit. "I'm not saying a word."

"A word about what?" Kristen asked. "And hey, by the way guys, I just want you know, I really appreciate you coming all this way to pick me up. I really mean that."

Jake grinned at her. "Hey, all for one and one for all. That's how it works, right."

Damon pulled up a couple of chairs and the two of them joined Kristen and Kal at the table.

* * *

**You Can't Cling On To The Past**

* * *

"Any reading on the relay beacon?" John asked.

"Doesn't look like it." Carol was still busy checking the signal levels, it wasn't so easy to read the way she was holding it. She was trying to keep the tracking device as inconspicuous as possible which wasn't easy standing on the top of Parliament Hill on Hampstead Heath. It was about the least discrete place there was to be trying to take readings, but they needed high ground and it had to be far enough out of London to avoid signal interference, this was the only place nearby that met all the requirements. And it still wasn't good enough, Carol wasn't seeing any signal at all.

She had to keep trying. The activity helped keep her from giving in to the tears she felt close to. She knew John was right, their dream of changing the world had ended when they'd abandoned the Earth. They'd failed. For someone as idealistic and as optimistic as Carol, though, that was a difficult reality to have to confront.

Not once in over forty years since she'd left the place had Carol ever felt homesick, not until now, not until John had pointed out she'd never be able to come back again. Saying goodbye to the place wasn't going to be easy at all, even knowing she had Narcissa waiting for her to return. She had a new life on another planet, a wonderful, wonderful life with someone she loved, a life in which she'd been able to seize so many opportunities and fulfill so many dreams, things she never could have done if she'd stayed on Earth. She stared at the skyline of London in the distance.

"Could be they deployed but couldn't get it high enough for us to pick up at this distance." Elizabeth wondered out loud, interrupting Carol's thoughts.

"You mean they couldn't find any hills in the Lake District?" John queried sarcastically.

Carol frowned at him. She didn't always appreciate his dry sense of humor. She wasn't much in a mood for any kind of humor.

"This Ra-dalhamun seems to have been an excellent pilot, the fact any of them made it this far is a tribute to that. I can't see someone like her failing to deploy the beacon correctly," John took a less acerbic tone.

"Nothing. No signal at all." Carol walked back towards them. "The problem is that none of them understand the time constraints. Ra-dalhamun will have them climbing the highest peak they can see, even if that takes them all day, because that gives them the best chance of being found. They think they have eleven days, they have no idea where they are."

"If we don't get a signal before nightfall then our chances of getting to them in time will be slim." Elizabeth sounded worried. "We didn't find Stephen, we didn't find Chris. If we don't find any survivors from the crash then..."

"We know." John pointed out. He glanced at his watch. "Thirty-two hours left. Well, we can continue to try jaunting towards Skelwith, or..."

"Of course we have to keep jaunting towards them." Carol was disgusted that John was even implying there was an alternative. Rescuing the survivors from the crash was all they had to keep them going, and it didn't make sense, there was no way any one of them would walk away from their mission.

"Or we could wait until we can get a signal from the beacon, then we could tie that into the jaunting belts and get ourselves there in a single jump," John clarified, obviously sensing Carol's concern.

Elizabeth shook her head. "Carol's right. We don't know how long that might take, the closer we are, the more ready we'll be. And if, for whatever reason, it turns out it is a range problem, getting closer to the place is the only course of action that is going to help. And on top of that, I can't just sit around and wait."

"Me neither." Carol chimed in. Sitting around would only give her too much time to dwell on things she would rather not dwell on. She watched John stare back at them, it wasn't often they ganged up against him like this.

"I wasn't planning on sitting around and waiting. What I'm trying to suggest is that as long as we head generally North, it wouldn't slow us down any to take a slight detour en route..." he tried to explain.

"Perhaps if you just came out with it and told us where you wanted to detour to?" Elizabeth interrupted, obviously feeling a little impatient with John's reluctance to tell them what his idea was.

"The last address we have for Chris is in a town called Beckindale, which is somewhere up in that direction." John confessed.

Carol found a half smile on her lips for the first time in hours, that was the John she remembered. All thoughtless and blunt on the outside, but secretly, deep down, he could be even more of a big girl than she was at times. "And you accuse me of being soft hearted and sentimental. Of course we can afford to take a detour for that."

John tried not to look mildly embarrassed as Carol and Elizabeth exchanged a smug glance.

Carol started to feel a little better. "And I suppose you've already worked out the coordinates, haven't you," she scolded John affectionately.

* * *

"No, I'm not happy. They're on foot, the entire area is locked down, this shouldn't be difficult. No more excuses, I want results." Sierpinski ended the call, cutting the soldier off mid apology. She wasn't interested. The search effort had been allocated double the number of troops that should have been necessary and anyway, there was nowhere out there for anyone to hide. Their failure to come up with anything smacked of incompetence, and Elaine Sierpinski loathed incompetence. Her patience was deteriorating.

The Lieutenant knocked on the door. She stared at him angrily. The Lieutenant, according to his record, was very competent. Well she'd seen bugger all evidence of that so far, he didn't seem to be making much of an effort. And if there was something she loathed more than incompetence it was laziness.

"Report. Make it fast, you're the least of my problems right now."

The Lieutenant hesitated, clearly not appreciating the insult. "Something you need to see," he told her.

She stared at him, waiting for him to continue, but he was clearly expecting her to drop what she was doing and follow him somewhere. She didn't have time for this. "What is it Lieutenant, another one of your Doctor Who fantasies?"

"Yes," he reported bluntly.

Elaine Sierpinski frowned. He was pissing her off, and no one pissed her off like that, not unless they had a death wish. Not unless they had something to show her.

She threw her cellphone down on the desk and stood up. If he had something to show her, he would survive her wrath. If not, she was at the end of her rope with him, this was all the reason she needed to have him replaced. She followed silently.

"The larger object on the same trajectory that we couldn't see, didn't just burn up on entry, it appears to have totally vaporized."

"No debris at all?" she asked him. That would certainly be unusual, but not unusual enough to satisfy her displeasure.

"We've been over the site with a tooth-comb, there's nothing. And no reports of anything else falling along the same flight path. These four capsules are the only physical evidence that exists that there even was an incident."

"Keep trying."

"Given the construction of these pods, I would have expected a significant part of the structure to have survived. The implication is that it wasn't intended to survive. It was deliberately set to self destruct."

"You're reaching."

They approached the garage workshop area, most of the analysis work on the samples taken from the capsules was being done in a temporary clean area they'd set up around the other side of the farmhouse, the workshop area was acting primarily as a storage facility now. The Lieutenant guided her round to where one of the capsules had been hoisted up onto industrial scales.

"Weighs 25Kg," he indicated at the figure on the display. "Light for the size."

"Lieutenant, you're stating the obvious. To be blunt, you're not impressing me."

"Crank shaft from a tractor, 30Kg." Completely ignoring her, he grabbed a large, oily steel crank shaft from the bench, and manhandled it into the capsule.

"And I'm about finished with you. Do better than this or you're off the job."

"Total combined weight, 25Kg."

"The scales are broken."

"With all due respect, I'm not that stupid."

Elaine Sierpinski hesitated. No, he wasn't that stupid. She reached out and pushed on the scales causing the figure on the display to fluctuate. Then she tried pushing on the inside of the capsule. Nothing happened.

"Gravitational shielding," the Lieutenant stated bluntly, challenging her to disagree.

"I'll admit, the existence of this kind of technology is beyond top secret, but we have it, and so do the Americans. Probably the Chinese as well."

"We know none of those three powers is behind this."

"Aliens again?" she asked him coldly.

"If you seriously expect me to dignify that question with an answer, then I would suggest I'm not the one who's lost their objectivity here."

Sierpinski allowed herself a smile. The Lieutenant had balls after all. "Conclusions, and I'll accept speculation."

"It's possible the reason for the deliberate destruction of the main craft was as simple as a safety mechanism making sure there was no chance of survivors being hit on the head by debris after they landed."

"But you don't believe that."

"Whatever the origin of this technology, it's way beyond anything we have around here. Our experiments with gravitational shielding fall a long way short of what you're looking at here. And these are just escape capsules, the main craft would have been far more advanced than this. I would suggest the main craft was destroyed to prevent it falling into our hands. Someone doesn't want us learning their secrets."

"But who the hell is it that has technology like that?"

"I accept that without more information, speculation there is worthless."

Finally the guy had managed to get himself some objectivity. "You just redeemed yourself, Lieutenant."

"One thing I am certain of though, is that you don't construct something like that with the intention of destroying it."

"Unless you're on a one way mission."

"They came in under the radar with stealth capabilities we don't understand. If you have that level of stealth technology, you don't draw attention to yourself, especially on a one way mission. If they had meant to come here, we wouldn't know a thing about it. Something went wrong."

"So, you're confident that them being here is an accident."

"As confident as I can be about anything under the circumstances."

Sierpinski stared at the capsule, deep in contemplation. That was the first intelligent conversation she'd had since her arrival. The Lieutenant had finally demonstrated some sense, she'd misjudged him. Was it equally possible she'd misjudged the competence of the troops out searching for the other two survivors?

"What technology do you think the other two have access to? You think they might be dangerous?" she contemplated out loud.

"Do they have access to advanced technology? I'd say that's likely. What technology? I can't answer that. Dangerous? They're on the run and hiding. I think we have to assume they're potentially dangerous."

"Are we secure here?"

"We have soldiers on the doors, no one in or out without authorization. We can defend ourselves."

Elaine Sierpinski shook her head. She'd been so busy shouting at other people for making mistakes that it hadn't occurred to her that she might be the one at fault. She'd made a mistake, she'd underestimated the risks, and the Lieutenant had correctly pointed that out to her. "We can defend ourselves can we? Defend ourselves against what, Lieutenant?"

He remained silent.

Sierpinski considered the situation carefully. Each hour that passed without any foreign embassy coming forward to admit responsibility made it more likely that this was the work of an unfriendly power. If she was dealing with unfriendlies then she was going to have to tread a lot more carefully. A few precautions wouldn't hurt.

"I want this place locked down. Bring in as many troops as you need. Keep them outside the building, but I want the building ring fenced and I want permanent patrols on every approach. Understood?"

The Lieutenant nodded and headed off. Sierpinski continued to stare at the capsule. Who the hell had that kind of technology? Even if it was laughable to think it might be aliens, the Lieutenant was right, there was something more than a little weird shit going on here.

* * *

The procedure for jaunting long distance without adequate navigation was not simple. It required time, concentration, maps, and above all it required a lack of distractions. Somehow Elizabeth had found herself stuck with the job of handling the bulk of that task. The hardest part had been finding somewhere on Hampstead Heath that was quiet enough to jaunt from without being seen. Thankfully the situation had become a lot easier once they'd managed to get away from London. A holiday weekend, Elizabeth contemplated, wasn't the best time the passenger shuttle could have picked to malfunction during a gamma radiation storm and spin out of control into an Earth orbit.

It had taken a little over two hours to make the three jumps that had been necessary to get them as far as Beckindale, allowing for a brief stop on the way to grab sandwiches from a supermarket in Leamington Spa. They'd been too impatient to stop for a proper meal, wouldn't have stopped at all except that they had to eat in order to have any hope of completing their mission. It took a lot of energy to jaunt nearly three hundred miles.

Elizabeth had enjoyed the opportunity to have a chicken salad sandwich again. It felt something of a guilty pleasure, there was a risk that eating anything would accelerate the effect of the poison, but it was a risk they had accepted to come on the mission in the first place. The sandwich had been worth it.

She wasn't too bothered by the idea she'd never get to have one again though. Like Carol she was only there to tie up loose ends. It would be sad to say goodbye to the place, but like Carol she had a new life now. Leaving Earth had forced her to re-evaluate everything, and she'd seized the opportunity, now she had a new life, a new career, and very few regrets. Carol had helped her a lot, there. Elizabeth had never really known Carol on Earth, and yet in the years since they'd left, the two of them had become extremely close friends.

For Elizabeth the strangest part of this mission to Earth was that she got to spend time with John again. She'd worked with him every day for twenty years, but then ironically after the evacuation their lives had taken completely different paths and she'd barely seen him more than a handful of times since then. There was very little about Earth she had missed, but she had missed John, missed him more than she had realized.

She was also starting to worry about him. On the surface John had given the impression he'd adjusted quickly to life in outer space, but Elizabeth could see now that he'd never really managed to let go of his old life, never managed to move on. He wasn't used to things falling apart like this.

Elizabeth braced herself, if there was going to be bad news about Chris then they would know soon enough. They were finally on the street that was listed as his last known contact address. The place was very rural, very village-y, not exactly the kind of place any of them would have imagined a city dweller like Chris ending up. The streets were lined with quaint, stone built cottages, and they were surrounded on all sides by farmland.

Carol had volunteered to go up to the house and knock on the door. She was the logical choice, she was the least threatening and most diplomatic of the three of them.

The emotions they were sensing from her as she chatted on the door step were mixed. It was hard to pin down what that meant, except that the news was clearly not entirely hopeless. They watched her thank the man who had opened the door, then she turned and headed back towards them.

She didn't wait until she was close enough that she could speak to them to launch into her account. ~He moved out because he couldn't manage in the house on his own any more. The council moved him into a residential care home. Apparently he wasn't too happy at that, still fiercely independent. He was also something of a local hero around here. They still forward the occasional letter on to him at the rest home. As far as they know he's still alive.~

~You have the address?~ John asked.

~Right here,~ Carol confirmed.

~What happened that he needs residential care? I mean, he's old, and I know he's a sap, but come on, he wasn't that much older than us.~ Elizabeth really didn't like the unspoken implications of that news.

Carol expanded on the story. ~He was injured, came under sniper fire while he was helping out at a school in Afghanistan. Saved the lives of over thirty children there, that's why he's considered such a hero around here. But there were complications arising from his injuries and his condition deteriorated rapidly after his return home.~

~Is this planet determined to crush us? We've had nothing but misery and despair thrown at us since we made it back.~ Elizabeth was starting to let her frustrations get to her.

"It wasn't much better before we left." John reminded her. "That's why we were forced to leave."

"Still no signal?" Carol asked as she caught up with the others down the street where they'd been waiting. She'd spotted John checking the readings again.

"Nothing yet."

Elizabeth took the scrap of paper the man at the house had given Carol and looked it up on her map. "Close enough we should be able to jaunt there in five minutes. Let's go find this address."

* * *

"I have enough problems. You want to give me more?" Sierpinski glared at Doctor Vidal. She was getting less happy by the minute. The reinforcements she'd requested were on their way, but wouldn't be there for another hour or two. In the meantime the search for the other two survivors was being hampered because she'd had to reassign a significant proportion of them to keep the farmhouse protected.

She looked around the barn. The old farm had consisted of three separate buildings arranged around a courtyard. One had been converted for use as a tractor repair shop, she was stationed in what had been the old farmhouse itself and the third building was an old barn which had also been converted into more partition offices. It was the third building they had appropriated as a medical facility. The partitioned areas had been rather brutally stripped out of their office furnishings and were now home to a couple of mobile hospital beds and a plethora of medical equipment. The place was completely unsuitable to the purpose they were using it for, and Sierpinski could see that restoring the place to its original condition after they were done there was going to be difficult. The owners of the place would have to be paid off, some kind of compensation, she was thankful that wasn't her problem, she'd be long gone by then. It was also a security nightmare that the three areas were all so disconnected.

Sierpinski returned her attention to the Doctor. He actually looked in a worse mood than she was.

"You said this wasn't a military operation but you've got the place out there crawling with soldiers. Is that to keep people out, or to keep us in?"

"Both, Doctor."

"And despite the fact that both the Lieutenant and myself have recommended we move out of here, you've decided to completely disregard those recommendations?"

"Yes. I do that sometimes," she replied flippantly.

"For the record then. These facilities are completely unsuitable. I have two patients here, and frankly, I consider the conditions I'm working under to constitute a significant risk to the health of those patients. And I need to eat. You may not like the idea that people need to take breaks sometimes, but if I don't get to eat at some point soon I'm not going to be able to function. And I can't eat in here while I work, before you come out with that stupid suggestion, it isn't hygienic and I won't allow it."

"Your concerns are noted, Doctor. Now get to the point, or get back to your patients."

The Doctor frowned at her. He clearly didn't appreciate her dismissive attitude at all. "I reported that the two patients were in a coma, and that given the extent of their injuries the rate to which that had slowed their metabolism was the only thing keeping them alive."

"Yes, Doctor, we've been all through this."

"The coma wasn't natural, it was induced. No trace of anything in their systems, how the hell you induce coma without drugs is beyond me, so there has to be something there, I just can't find it. Anyway, over the last few hours we've detected a slow rise in metabolic rate consistent with the drugs wearing off. I'm detecting trace cerebral function. They're waking up, and that's not good."

If the Lieutenant's problem was hyperbole, the Doctor's problem was understatement. Sierpinski was no Doctor of medicine and even she could see that the situation he was describing was significantly worse than not good. She could see it placing her on a collision course with the good Doctor. She pushed him for answers. "What can you do? Put them back into the same coma?"

"I can't isolate the drug that was used to put them under in the first place. Mixing treatments when I have no clue about the potential interactions, no, not an option. Not unless and until the condition is actually life threatening. And I'm not taking risks without first getting them into a proper medical facility."

"Then convince me of the risks, Doctor. What is it you want to try?"

"As I indicated before, someone has already been treating these patients. I don't pretend to understand the methodology, but given that the coma was induced, I'm starting to believe that person knew exactly what he or she was doing. So my proposal is to continue that course of treatment to the best of my ability."

"Which, you concede, is limited in comparison to the Doctor who was treating them before," she challenged him.

Doctor Vidal didn't seem slighted by the observation. "There are treatments would allow us to hyperoxygenate the blood. That might help keep them alive in the short term. Drugs to gradually thin the deliberate blood clots without causing further hemorrhaging. Beyond that it's a juggling act. If I can keep them alive like that for three months or so while the rest of their injuries heal, there's an outside chance they'll make a full recovery. The person who was treating them before obviously thought that it was possible. However, I would rate their chances realistically somewhere between 'remote' and 'it would take bloody miracle'."

"Alternatives?"

"Let them die. Which I will not be a party to." Sierpinski had no desire to indulge the Doctor in the opportunity for philosophical debate, but he was more likely to shut up and go away if she explained the situation to him. "Consider, Doctor, that these patients are foreign nationals who've crashed here by accident. In an hour or two we get a call from their embassy demanding to know how the survivors are."

"Then we need to be able to reassure then we're doing everything we can to help."

"International politics, Doctor, are never that simple."

The Doctor shook his head in disbelief, "We treat the patients to the best of our ability. What's the complication there?"

"If we step back and do nothing, the deaths would be a direct consequence of failing to survive the crash. If we intervene then we risk becoming the cause of death. Based on what you know about these people, and on the level of political tension that exists between this country and theirs, which of those will piss them off less?"

"I know nothing about these people to be able to give you an answer to that question."

"And yet the consequences of making the wrong decision could be an International incident far more costly than the lives of these two people. When the bodies are returned, they'll do an autopsy, you can count on that. If that shows death was a consequence of our intervention, we will have a problem."

Elaine Sierpinski hesitated for a moment. She hated politics. She understood why this frustrated the hell out of Doctor Vidal. His duty was to his two patients. Unfortunately she had a duty beyond that, and a much more complex balancing act to perform. "Doctor, I was in Iraq. I watched an idealistic young medic intervene desperately to save the life of an insurgent on the battlefield who was having a heart attack. He failed, there was nothing he could have done, but the militia watched and what they saw was an injured man who might have survived being attacked and murdered. That incident led to an escalation of the violence in which hundreds more died. That young medic among them. In your world things are black and white, in my world they aren't."

"You would let them die to avoid the chance of an international incident?" the Doctor whispered accusationally.

"I will recommend that treatment is approved. But the final decision will not be mine to make. And those we report to don't always listen to recommendations, do they? I'll talk to them. In the meantime, continue to do your best, but take no direct invasive action without first referring the matter to me. Understood?"

"Understood," the Doctor replied, but Sierpinski could see that the fact that the Doctor understood was no guarantee that he would comply when the time came. "You do realize when the condition of those two becomes critical, there won't be time to wait for a decision to come back. It's pointless being told I can treat them after they're already dead," he pointed out to her.

"Your concerns are noted, Doctor."

"I want authorization now to have the necessary equipment requisitioned and brought in. If you won't let me move them, then at least let me get the resources I need here and available. I want to be ready to act quickly when the time comes."

Sierpinski could see both the logic and the danger in the request, but the Doctor was right. "You'll have that authorization. And Doctor, I understand the constraints we're working under. Believe me, I understand."

The Doctor gave no indication of acknowledgement. He turned and marched stiffly out of the office.

The situation was in danger of spinning out of control. Sierpinski would make her recommendation, but she pretty much already knew what the response would be.

She was too good at her job, that was why they always gave her the impossible cases. Sometimes she enjoyed the challenge, but there was a fine line between enjoying a challenge and being a masochist. This assignment had just crossed the line. It wasn't fun any more.

* * *

"I know that voice." Chris Harding shouted across the lobby of the sheltered apartment complex.

John broke off from his conversation with Carol and looked around to see Chris wheeling himself across the lobby towards them.

The place had been really easy to find, the village was small and this was the only modern building there. Ten minutes was all it had taken them to walk there, no jaunting necessary. They'd spoken to the receptionist, introduced themselves as old friends of Chris, and the receptionist had been delighted to inform that Chris was definitely still living there, alive and well, and she was sure he'd be absolutely delighted they were there.

The only thing that had left John feeling a little uneasy was that the receptionist had acted like she'd known they were coming, implied that Chris had told her about the visit. Normally John would have written that off as the kind of white lies saps told to make strangers feel more comfortable, but he hadn't gotten any sense from her she was lying.

He let the matter drop. What mattered was that they had found Chris.

~Ouch.~ Elizabeth observed as she saw him.

It was as well Carol had warned them some about his injuries, she just hadn't warned enough. Chris was slightly slumped in the electric wheelchair that he was controlling with a small joystick in his left hand. One side of his face drooped slightly, it looked like he was partially paralyzed down the right hand side, and his head was being held upright mostly by an angled headrest mounted to the chair. His speech slurred slightly and his breathing sounded labored. His eyes, however, were as alive as they had ever been.

"It's okay, you can say it out loud, I know. You have this look on your face when you do that telepathic thing, and I might not be telepathic, but I know what you're thinking." Chris pointed out bluntly.

"Sorry." Elizabeth replied.

"We heard about you saving all those children, knew you were injured in the process. I don't think we realized the full extent of those injuries." John explained.

"This happened later," He told them. "I was patched up in the field, pretty well I thought. They took a piece of shrapnel out of my head by the roadside. Saved my life, no doubt about it. But the operating conditions weren't ideal and the repair job wasn't perfect. Turns out there was a blood clot left in there, or something like that, I don't understand all that medical stuff, but a year or two later I had a series of strokes. Now I'm stuck in this place."

"That must be so frustrating," Carol tried to sympathize.

Chris remained polite. "Everyone did their best, and I'm still alive. Different people take things different ways, I've had a lot of time to think about that this last few years. I decided I'm not one of those people who is going to waste his time sitting here feeling sorry for himself."

"You never were." John smiled. His initial reaction on seeing Chris had been one of devastation, the Chris he remembered had always been so active, so alive. It had hurt to see him looking so old, so worn out. But then Chris had started talking, and the years and the infirmity no longer seemed to matter. The wheelchair didn't matter. Chris was very definitely still Chris.

"The frustrating part was working out how I would get back in to London to get to the vault. Sure the people here would bend over backwards to help out, but I didn't know how I could open that deposit box without anyone seeing what was inside. Anyway, I knew I had a few more years before the cards expired, and I figured the lack of contact details wasn't going to stop you or Stephen finding me if you had to."

"And you were right." Elizabeth smiled.

"Didn't think it would take you this long though. I've been waiting. I've been pulling together all the information you'll need. Every last detail I could find. Didn't want to risk making contact myself, I knew you'd turn up sooner or later, figured anything that needed saying was going to have to come from you anyway. Look, come on, come back to my room, it's all waiting..." Without waiting Chris wheeled himself around and headed off. John and the others almost had to run to keep up with him.

The receptionist had been right then, Chris had been expecting them. John was impressed. "You've been working fast. The spaceship only crashed last night."

Chris glanced up, puzzled. "That crashed satellite was you lot? I suppose I should have guessed. What did you do, rear end it with your flying saucer on the way here? I never did trust your driving."

John was confused, Chris hadn't been interested in the satellite at all. "You were expecting us even before that?"

Chris arrive at his room, pushed open the door and then spun round to confront John. "I've been expecting you for months. You took your bloody time. But that's okay, you're here now."

"It wasn't a satellite that crashed, it was a space ship and we're here to rescue the four survivors from the crash," Carol explained as they filed in. "But they're taking their time activating their relay beacon. In the meantime we were worried that we couldn't reach you on the telephone number you'd left, so we came looking."

The place wasn't a bad size, the door opened into a living room area, there was a large window opposite that looked out across farmland. To the left was a doorway into what they could see was a small bedroom, to the right was a second door through into a small bathroom and an archway into a kitchen area. The whole place was spotlessly clean, Chris kept the place ordered and tidy. Tidy except for one table that had been set up for scrap booking. Chris had wheeled himself across to the table and pulled out a pile of scrapbooks from the table drawer.

"So you don't know anything about the murders?" He asked them a little disbelievingly, as he sorted through and pulled out one scrapbook in particular.

"No." Elizabeth frowned, looking at John and Carol questioningly. "What murders?"

John was starting to wonder if Chris's mind really was still quite as sharp as he'd thought.

Chris handed the scrapbook to Carol, who happened to be nearest. She opened it and glanced through. It was full of newspaper articles, meticulously arranged with dates, notes, facts marked in yellow highlight, page after page. She stopped on a page at random and started to read.

John was impatient. "What murders Chris, what are you talking about?"

"Oh dear God," Carol had been scanning through the newspaper article.

"Told you," Chris replied.

John stared questioningly at Carol. Even if he hadn't been able to read the overwhelming sense of shock she was feeling, her uncharacteristically strong language alone would have told him something was very, very wrong.

"Newspaper stories, articles, reports, everything." Carol sounded both stunned by the content and impressed at the thoroughness of the job Chris had done.

"It had to be comprehensive," he told her. "I don't know how much longer I have left. I'm not in great shape, and my condition is only going to deteriorate. I was planning one last trip to London, whatever the cost I knew I had to get this to you."

"Get what to us?" John's patience had run out.

Carol handed him the scrapbook.

John's face turned blank as he read, his mind racing. He closed his eyes then handed the scrapbook to Elizabeth who by now was reaching to grab it out of his hands.

John had no clue what to think. This was the last thing he'd expected this final visit to Earth to throw at him, he hadn't dared imagine anything like this was even possible.

Carol stared at him. "It means..."

"No Carol, we don't know what it means. We're just guessing what it means." John interrupted. He didn't want anyone jumping to conclusions, not about something this important.

Elizabeth handed the scrapbook back to John as Chris watched on, clearly enjoying the reaction he'd provoked. She was just as mind-blown by the revelation as the rest of them. "All four of us have obviously guessed the same thing though," Elizabeth pointed out. "And if there is the slightest chance there is any truth behind that guessing, if there is the slightest chance at all, then I'd say it's worth every risk we've taken to get here and more. If it's true it changes everything."

John was direct. "I know that. What bothers me is that we're getting our hopes up already. We've suffered enough disappointment already on this trip. It could be a copycat series of killings, it could be a complete coincidence."

"But it could be new Tomorrow People," Carol expressed the words they'd all been avoiding.

Elizabeth was resolute, "It doesn't matter how remote the chances are. You know that John. We have to find out one way or the other, whatever the cost."

John nodded his agreement, staring at the photograph of the boy in the last of the newspaper cuttings. He'd been ready to give up on the planet, and buried among the conflicting feelings that had arisen from being confronted with accepting that outcome had been a fragment of relief. After all those years being ultimately responsible for all the Tomorrow People, he was finally going to be free. Now he had to accept it was a responsibility he was never going to be free of, he wasn't going to find the closure on this mission that he was looking for. And for a moment he felt guilty, because he had been so much looking forward to being able to walk away and get on with his life.

* * *

"We've completed an exhaustive search of the exclusion zone. We found tracks from the crash site and initial sightings of the two civilians we're after. They crossed hills and got to a road. They headed North on the road towards Ambleside. We had dogs in, but, they were struggling to pick up any scent at all. We followed what we think might be the trail, but it ended abruptly before the bridge at checkpoint Baker West. No way they could have crossed the river without being spotted. They couldn't have made it any further forward that way and in the absence of any further trail we conclude they doubled back. But we've retraced their steps and found nothing. We now have blanket surveillance of the area, we've deployed thermal imaging cameras. They are not anywhere in the area that we can detect. We are also sure the cordon around the area has not been breached."

"They aren't there, and they haven't left. You understand what you're saying?" Sierpinski challenged the soldier.

"Yes. I know that's impossible. I'm just reporting it how it is."

Sierpinski nodded, she was done.

"Dismissed," The Lieutenant ordered.

"Sir." The soldier made his departure from Sierpinski's temporary office.

"Medical knowledge that has Doctor Vidal baffled. Engineering knowledge that has you baffled. Now this." Elaine Sierpinski addressed the Lieutenant.

Was it possible these people from the capsules were part of some kind of super secret organization with access to all manner of wild and wacky scientific gadgets? She couldn't believe she was seriously even thinking that, but all the other alternatives she could come up with were even more unbelievable, like the Lieutenant's suggestion it was alien technology. That one, thankfully, she could still dismiss; the survivors they had under observation were not green and they didn't have tentacles.

But wherever these people were from, Sierpinski couldn't afford to underestimate them. They were clearly more intelligent than the troops she had out searching for them.

The two survivors had hiked to the edge of the exclusion zone. If they'd had a more effective means of transport then they wouldn't have wasted all that time hiking, so, whatever their reason, it seemed likely they would still be on foot.

"What's the furthest they could have made it?" she asked.

"Since last contact, ten miles. Fifteen at the outside," the Lieutenant estimated.

"Set up a perimeter at twenty miles. I want reconnaissance of that entire area. I want a few open patrols, show a visible presence, let's get the locals a little nervous, but in parallel I want the bulk of the forces engaged in covert area reconnaissance, treat the area as hostile territory."

"That's no small area to be searching..."

"You'll get the resources."

"It would be easier if we could evacuate..."

"No. I want the military presence to look routine, I don't want the survivors to know we're looking for them. Let them think they've evaded us for now."

"And what do we tell the reconnaissance teams that they're looking for?"

She paused to think for a moment. "Tell them we're doing a census. Getting a list of people who've been in the area, routine, nothing to worry about, but if there are any issues with the radiation then we need to have a record of who was there. Deploy the automated face recognition systems. I know they aren't massively reliable, I know you'll get false positives, deal with it. I want real time cross referencing against the national identity card database. Anyone fails a check, I want to know about it."

"Understood."

"That's all, go."

Why North? What were they up to? It didn't make sense they would wander too far, if the crash really had been an accident then they would stay close to the crash site. They'd crashed down in the valley, was it possible they were just headed for higher ground? And who the hell were they?

That was the question it kept coming back to. Just who the hell were they?

* * *

Chris was in his element. For three years he'd been deprived of any opportunity to feel useful, now was his chance to make up for that. He was also thoroughly enjoying the opportunity to catch up with old friends, not that the news he had to offer them was all that cheerful.

"Megabyte picked up the telepathic recorded message you left after you demolished the lab, found his way to the vault no problem. He called me from a pay-phone near there, I wrote everything he said down, but it made almost no sense at all. He sounded nervous, paranoid. I mean, I'm not surprised, getting back and finding everyone gone, the lab abandoned, and you didn't exactly explain very much in the message you left..."

"It was all very confused towards the end, we didn't know what was going on, there wasn't much we could tell him," John admitted.

"Well, he was in a right state, seemed to think someone was following him. Anyway, he said Stephen had stayed behind in the Wastelands, Said that 'they' didn't know about Stephen, that there was still a chance Stephen could stop the armageddon. There was a whole bunch of stuff about owls as well, sounded like he had an obsession with them. He was rambling, I couldn't understand much, and he kept on saying he didn't want to say too much on the phone. I said I would meet him. I got there just too late, there was an ambulance, he'd collapsed apparently. He was delirious, I followed him to the hospital and waited, then he vanished. Jaunted away. I kept looking, but that was the last I heard of him." Chris shrugged, "They say people who go to the Wastelands end up either dead or insane."

"Stephen's still there." Carol reminded him pointedly. Chris didn't need to be telepathic to see she was upset and not dealing well with the implications of the story she was hearing.

He tried to diffuse the tension. "Yeah, but Stephen was crackers to begin with. When he comes back we won't be able to tell the difference." The joke worked well enough.

"The infection that kills us also has the rapid onset of dementia as one of the first symptoms. We don't know how long he'd been back, but I'd say it's very probable a large part of his confusion and paranoia were related to that and nothing to do with the Wastelands at all." John jumped in to further reassure Carol.

"Yeah well," Chris continued. "That's it, isn't it. If the same thing is going to happen to Stephen, he's better off in the Wastelands is all I can say. Or do you have some magic cure now, you didn't explain how it is the three of you managed to come back here yet!"

"No magic cure, I'm afraid. " John answered. "We understand it a little better now though. It seems to be a cumulative poison. Exposure takes about two days to disable, three days to kill. But if we can get away from the source of the contamination then over time the levels of the toxin slowly fall away. As long as we can catch people before it enters the terminal stages, then chances are they'll make a full recovery."

"So, you're here on a strict time limit. How much longer have you got?" Chris had worked out their problem. It would have been too much to expect they'd come back for good. Anyway, Chris had time limits of his own. All the more reason to make the most of what opportunity they did have.

"Twenty-nine more hours if we don't want to risk an irreversible level of exposure," Carol quantified the restriction.

"But there isn't any point staying longer than that anyway. The people we're here to rescue arrived here eight hours before we did. By the time we're in any danger, they'll already be dead." Elizabeth broke her brooding silence.

"The problem is they have no clue where they are, they don't understand the urgency of the situation, and they just aren't in any apparent hurry to set up the relay beacon we need to track them," Carol was showing her frustration.

"Affects aliens as well as you lot then does it, this poison?" Chris asked.

"It seems to be neurological, only attacks those areas of the brain that are different in telepaths. That's why it doesn't affect you saps, but does affect humanoid aliens." Elizabeth explained.

"Which is why I'm skeptical of the chances of anyone telepathic being able to survive here. Much as I would like to believe it," John pondered.

"I had my doubts as well." Chris countered him, he'd spent a lot of time thinking about this over the last few months. "Didn't know any of that stuff about brain poisons or anything, but as I figured it, the killings only stopped because you all left the planet. That was unfinished business. The killer, whoever it was, was never caught. Then suddenly, for no apparent reason he starts up again. Exactly the same method to the killing. Too many parallels for it to be coincidence, I'm not buying that. Copycat, alright, that's possible, but why? We know the killer was targeting you Tomorrow People last time. Why copy the rest, and fail to copy the one thing that was the entire reason for the killings?"

"I concede, it's tenuous as an explanation." John accepted.

Chris persisted with his reasoning. "And it's not just the parallels though that convinced me. You need to read that article on how this Damon escaped. It doesn't add up. Starved and delirious he manages to overpower someone twice as strong as him, then manages to make a run for it, when he can barely even walk, and the killer wasn't able to catch up. No. He was either helped by someone who magically managed to do so without leaving any evidence, or he jaunted. Which do you think is the more likely explanation? And this Jake's survival is equally improbable."

"You really have done a thorough job here," John observed as he studied the scrapbook. Chris appreciated the comment, John was not someone who was easily impressed or gave praise lightly.

"Still won't be easy to track them down." Carol reminded them. "We're having enough trouble tracking the people who crashed and they're supposed to have transponder beacons to make the job easier."

"Can't you just call them telepathically?" Chris asked.

"It isn't quite that easy." John pointed out.

"It never is." Chris had never quite understood why telepathy was always less useful than he felt it ought to be.

"You have to know where or who someone is to connect telepathically over a long distance. Think of it as like needing a telepathic telephone number to get through. The telepathic signal gets too weak over long distances to be able to just call out, you have to know their exact telepathic wavelength to get through," John tried to explain.

"Or," Elizabeth suggested, an idea occurring to her, "use telepathic amplifiers, like the one in the distress beacon."

John's face showed concentration as he considered the possibilities. Elizabeth was on to something. "Now that could be the start of a plan..."

"And once we find the four who crashed, there'll be eight of us to work on tracking them down." Carol was sounding chirpy for the first time since they'd arrived.

Chris looked up at John. John was a pragmatist, he was prepared for the risk of things not working out. Carol and to a lesser degree Elizabeth weren't. Chris wondered if John would take the path of being cruel in order to try and deflate their expectations now, or gamble on letting them enjoy their hope while it lasted.

John thought for a moment, "I'll head for Oxford, see if I can track down this Damon. You two need to continue on to Skelwith."

John had picked the second option. Chris smiled to himself, it seemed that John was getting soft in his old age,

"Our primary mission must remain rescuing the survivors of that crash." John continued. "Plus if I don't have any luck then Elizabeth is right, we're going to need that relay beacon."

"What about me?" Chris asked. He wasn't about to be left out, not after he'd waited patiently for so long for them to turn up.

"We'll make this a rendezvous point. We need you to keep on doing exactly what you've been doing. Monitor the news broadcasts, find out as much as you can about the cover story they're putting out. Then start looking at the area around Skelwith. I want maps, information about the terrain, hills nearest to the crash site and how high they are, look for places within the exclusion zone that they might commandeer. Get a list of military bases in the area. Any and every piece of information that might help us when we have to go in."

Chris smiled, that was something he could do. He was going to have to watch though, he was enjoying himself too much. He'd been warned about that, risking another stroke. But then if he didn't do this, what the hell use was his life? He'd just have to risk the excitement.

* * *

Sierpinski ended the call and glanced at her watch. The extended search was now well underway. It was mid afternoon, she'd be on the go for a little over twelve hours already. The Doctor was right, maybe they did need to eat. It was frustrating that she needed to be reminded about things like that sometimes. But then she lived to work, she accepted that.

Right now she ought to be off duty and enjoying a little Saturday afternoon shopping, instead she had a judgment call to make. She grabbed her cellphone from the desk and hit the secure dial option. Before she triggered a a major escalation she had to be damn sure of her facts, and right now the facts simply didn't add up, on the other hand there were certain precautions that needed to be taken regardless, just in case.

"Elaine Sierpinski here. Code Black Special." She waited for the reply, knowing those words would likely have caused something of a panic on the other end of the line. It took a minute or two before she was prompted to continue.

"Containment has failed. The threat level has not yet been established," she reported. "The Code Black Special is precautionary at this time... No sir, you can be assured that if there is any way to resolve this quietly, any way at all, I will take that option... Yes, sir. Whatever the cost."


	3. Episode 2

**You're Not Seeing This Planet At Its Best**

* * *

"You figure there's a problem getting signal? You think she's in trouble?" Damon wondered out loud.

"Signs of trouble generally involve screams or loud cries for help. Lighten up, little boy, she's fine." Jake replied. Alright, Kristen had been gone longer than he figured it should have taken to make one call to her mother to tell her about how great the weather was on Hawley Lake, but it was more likely it was just an attack of conscience on her part. Kristen had issues lying to her mother. Which didn't much make sense in this case because she didn't have to lie, Jake had looked it up on his cellphone, the weather report was completely truthful.

Damon gestured at the window. "Maybe she's forgotten she's telepathic."

Jake looked around to see Kristen standing out in the street, looking back into the tea shop, and waving at him. He had another bite of his scone and grudgingly headed out to find out what was wrong. She was probably just looking for advice on what to say, it hardly seemed reason to interrupt him from a scone.

"You could have asked telepathically," he told her as he stepped out of the tea shop.

"Yes, but then all three of you would have heard, telepathy isn't any good for private conversations," Kristen pointed out.

"So what's up?" Jake asked, he wasn't sure he wanted to know what Kristen had to say that she couldn't say in front of Damon.

"It's Kal, what are we going to do about him?"

"I don't know, that's kind of something we need to discuss. But you and me can't decide that out here, that's a discussion we need to have with Kal." Jake could sense there was something she was avoiding.

"I already promised him we'd help," Kristen confessed.

Jake now understand her hesitation. "We?" he challenged.

"Who the hell else is supposed to help him?"

"Fine, but without talking to us about it first?"

"Sorry. I thought you'd want to help." Jake could sense her regret. And her fear, she was afraid she'd crossed the line, screwed up, that he'd never forgive her, that their friendship was over already.

"I do want to help. And we will, I just, you're right, I don't like being taken for granted. But come on, there's worse things than being taken for granted. You'd pretty much have to completely betray me before I'd walk away." Jake tried not to sound too irritated by her presumption. It was also bleeding obvious to him why she'd done it.

"Do you always have to be so bloody reasonable, I'm trying to feel bad about not asking first. I really am sorry, and it's just, he really needs help. And I know, I promise, next time I'll talk to you before I make any promises..."

"However cute you think the alien is?" he asked, tactfully trying to let her know he could see right through what she was really thinking.

Kristen scowled at him, she'd finally paused long enough to sense that Jake hadn't been upset with her at all, he was just joking with her to try and make her feel comfortable. Which would have helped a lot more if she'd worked it out a few minutes earlier. "You know, it's like this is E.T., but for real. And I'm Elliot," she confessed.

Jake grinned at her sadistically. "Only I don't remember the part where Elliot wanted to shag E.T."

"Yeah, well they obviously just cut that scene from the movie to get the kids rating," Kristen started to get her confidence back.

Jake felt the need to caution her. "I don't want to spoil the fantasy for you, but E.T. lacked the equipment. And as much as this guy might look like us, he's still alien underneath. You don't what he might be packing downstairs."

"Yeah, that's the other favor I was going to ask."

"What?" Jake asked, suspiciously.

"You're a guy, I was wondering if you could, you know, follow him into the toilets or something, sneak a peek, let me know whether I'm wasting my time or not?" She caught Jake's slightly disturbed expression. "It's okay, I'm joking."

"No you aren't." Jake told her.

There were moments she really, really hated telepathy.

* * *

"It's anecdotal, but it's interesting," The Lieutenant stuck his head in through the door to Sierpinski's temporary office.

"Yes Lieutenant?" Sierpinski figured she could do with the interruption. Bloody typical that immediately she escalates the situation to a Code Black Special that everything should grind to a halt. People always thought a job like hers would be so exciting; non stop, break neck, unfolding like a string of firecrackers. But that only happened in the movies, the movies missed out the empty moments like this. No new leads in the search, no progress with the leads they already had, no progress from the Doctor on the condition of his patients, nothing. She was bored.

Sierpinski closed the web browser on her laptop and gestured to the Lieutenant to come in.

"Two people in silver suits walk into a store to buy clothes," the Lieutenant started, as if coming out with the opening line of a joke. "Said their clothes were destroyed by the army because they strayed over the line and got contaminated."

"There is no contamination," Sierpinski smiled, this was more like it.

"And we don't hand out silver jump suits either."

"Okay, I'm interested."

The Lieutenant handed her the report to read. "The guy didn't speak, they thought he might be foreign or something. The girl did all the talking. The story was completely plausible, the people in the shop saw nothing unusual in their behavior. They only mentioned it jokingly to the sergeant, wanted to know if he was planning on waylaying other unsuspecting tourists, and if he did then would he recommend their shop. They were trying to drum up business."

"The sergeant?..."

"Stayed on story. Told them he was unaware of the incident, indicated it was quite possible, but suggested that the number of people exposed was expected to be three or four at the most. The shop owners were satisfied."

"They have CCTV?"

"Yes. I'm assuming that we don't want it officially requisitioned though."

"Bloody hell no."

"The store closes at 5:00 PM. We have a team prepped to go in and retrieve the discs shortly after that, copy them and get out cleanly."

She nodded her approval of the Lieutenant's efficiency. "No one on the team is to be informed of the real purpose of the mission. I don't care what you make up. The data is to be relayed back here and no one else is to see it. Understood?"

"Yes."

"What do you think?"

"One of them spoke English. I was out of line suggesting they were aliens."

"Or they learned the language damn fast," Sierpinski countered, smiling. She liked being argumentative. Guys she dated hated that.

"They're intuitive, turned our own cover story against us."

"So they have some way of monitoring the news broadcasts about the situation. They had their story planned before they went into that store."

"Resourceful. We have no clue how they managed to get out of the exclusion zone."

"What bothers me is that this implies they know we're after them, and they know how to protect themselves, they know how to blend in."

"Finding them now will not be easy. They look like a couple of random hitchhikers. The only way we'll be able to isolate them is to instigate a full lockdown. Stop and search every individual in a thirty mile radius. That is going to be impossible to handle discretely."

Sierpinski shook her head. "No, Lieutenant, you just have to think outside of the rocket ship. Get me pictures of them. They want to use our cover story against us? Two can play at that game."

She waved the Lieutenant away and briefly flicked through the report. Evidence of subterfuge, but no real threat. There was no way that the situation warranted a Code Black Special, not yet anyway. Then again, the Code Black Special made her life a little easier, it gave her a much wider range of actions she could take without having to worry about getting prior approval. She was starting to feel confident they'd catch up with the other two survivors, it was only a matter of time, which meant all she had to do was sit there bored for another couple of hours. She glanced frustratedly at her watch. She threw the report down and went back to working on the web site she was setting up for her two cats. It helped keep her sane.

* * *

Jake and Kristen headed back into the tea shop to find Damon and Kal sitting there silently, nervously avoiding eye contact. Both of them were a little apprehensive about dealing with strangers, it maybe hadn't been the best idea to walk out and abandon them like that, Kristen didn't need Kal getting himself uncomfortable than he already was.

~So how come you aren't green and tentacled. I guess life in the universe isn't infinitely variable. I mean you aren't exactly all that, well, varied.~ Jake sat back down, took another bite of his scone, and tried to restart the conversation.

~There are certain basic biological forms that are fundamentally suitable for survival, they crop up over and over again throughout the galaxy,~ Kal started to explain.

"I've been reading Simon Conway Morris in biology," Damon jumped in, "He calls it Evolutionary Convergence. I would love to use this for my homework assignment. I had cream tea with an alien, this strongly supports Morris's ideas on evolutionary convergence. However the fact I had cream tea with an alien strongly suggests the rare Earth hypothesis Morris also advocates is complete bollocks."

~He's right,~ Kal backed Damon up, "Two arms, two legs isn't all that uncommon, although in this case, I don't know. The similarities do seem a little freaky.~

"But not impossible?" Kristen was looking for a little reassurance.

"There are loads of examples," Damon educated her. "The placental wolf, Canis lupus, and marsupial wolf, Thylacinus cynocephalus are incredibly similar to look at, both evolved that basic form in complete isolation. Of course, the similarities don't go very deep. The marsupial wolf has a bifurcated penis for a start..."

Jake frowned at him. "Do we really need to know this?"

There was silence for a moment.

"So what do we do now?" Kristen desperately felt the need to try and shift the conversation back on track. "You said something about a relay beacon..."

Kal nodded, tucking in to his second scone. ~I need to get somewhere, high ground, activate the beacon, that has to be my first priority. Then I need to head back and find the others. They'll be fine for now, I placed them in stasis, but I want to try and revive them, the escape capsules don't have the resources to maintain stasis for more than about thirty hours without external power. Then somehow I have to keep them alive until the rescue ship arrives. Which could be as long as ten days. That part won't be easy, they weren't in good shape, but I have a few ideas.~

"You sound like you know what you're doing." Damon observed.

Kal half smiled. ~I'm a med student, well, I was, until they kicked me out of med school. Actually what happened was that they threatened to kick me out and I told them I quit anyway. Not sure I should have done that. Trying to work things out, I guess that's why I was on the passenger shuttle. Sorry, I'll shut up boring you, it's a long story. But if I'd lasted the course then I would have been a bloody good medic. I know enough to give them a fighting chance. They'll survive.~

Jake weighed up the situation. "You worry about your patients, we'll worry about getting that beacon deployed."

~You'll help?~ Kal sounded cautiously hopeful. ~I mean, Kristen said you would, but, she hadn't talked to you about it then, and mostly she was offering to help because she thinks I'm cute. Actually, she thinks more than that, but...~

Kristen winced, her subterfuge trying to keep that between her and Jake had been completely wasted.

Jake helpfully interrupted Kal's thoughts. "I think you're cute as well, though not necessarily in the exact same inappropriate way Kristen does." He glanced across at Damon, who caught on to the question and nodded. "Okay, we discussed it, looks like we all think you're cute, you want the help or not?"

"I want to get off this planet. I'll take all the help I can get. Thanks." Kal finally seemed to relax a little.

"Yeah, well, you've got the harder job," Damon reminded him. "The humans are going to try to get into those capsules, I don't know how much damage they can do, but I guarantee they've moved them already."

Kal wasn't too worried there. ~We've got the transponders, we can track them. These humans make you that nervous?~

Damon shrugged. "Most of them are harmless enough."

~I don't sense malicious intent, not from the humans around us.~

"Tea shops are not generally known as being hotbeds of malicious intent," Jake tried to clarify. "Your bigger problem with the humans is that they're clueless. It's the damage they cause because they don't know what they're doing is what you have to worry about."

~I know a few people at school like that,~ Kal joked.

Kristen watched the conversation. It bothered her the way that they were all quite so dismissive about the humans.

Jake seemed oblivious. "Damon, you want to go hike up a mountain with me to set up the relay beacon?"

"As long as I'm not the one has to do all the bloody hiking."

Kal looked bemused. Jake and Damon were clearly both totally off their rockers. ~The beacon's designed to be piss easy to assemble, there's instructions in there.~

"Written in alien?" Damon queried.

"Can't be worse than getting Ikea furniture delivered to discover the only assembly instructions they've included were in Swedish," Jake assured him.

Damon turned his head sideways slowly. "I never knew you had a fetish for Swedish furniture."

"I don't," Jake snapped back quickly, resenting the implied accusation. "My sister went all Ikea when she moved into her new flat."

"Right, makes sense now. Totally explains why you got her that Swedish phrase book."

Kristen's patience ran out. "Guys, can we focus here? We need to get moving."

Damon shrugged. "Right. I need to go pee before we head out, though," he informed them.

"You do that. I'll go pay." Jake agreed.

Kal was curious, ~you pay for food?~

"Right." Kristen looked at him, she was still thrown by how one minute he could come across as just another ordinary guy, then the next she would sense a confusion in his mind that made no sense to her at all.

~I understand the words,~ Kal admitted, ~but I don't get what you're trying to say. Surely food is a basic right, not a commodity for barter.~

He really didn't get it. Kristen felt oddly reassured by the confession, the last couple of weeks she'd spent desperately trying to grasp so many concepts that seemed alien to her, it was reassuring to feel like she wasn't the only one struggling.

"That's just how it is. On this world, food is a commodity for barter," She tried to explain.

~How do you survive on a world this primitive?~

Kristen had no answer. It hadn't really occurred to her before, but he was right, the world she lived in really was quite primitive.

* * *

Kal followed Damon into the toilets, glancing around, obviously not quite sure of where he was or what he was doing there. The toilets were clean, functional, a little spartan, and small. There was only barely enough space in there for the two of them. Kal watched Damon for a moment and then stood next to him at the urinals and glanced down. "Ur-gisgal," he observed, working out how to undo his flies.

"Sounds rude, and yet complimentary," Damon declared to no one in particular.

~Toilets.~ Kal stated, ~I was wondering how the whole toilet thing was done here.~

"No shit," Damon observed.

"No shit." Kal tried to repeat the phrase.

Damon smirked. "That's pretty close. You'll learn the language in no time."

"Nu sed," Kal translated the phrase into alien. ~Scary, even some of the words sound similar...~

"Nu sed," Damon observed. Inappropriately pleased that those were the first alien words he had learnt.

Kal started to pee. ~Urogenital tract appears identical, you're not marsupial anyway, bone structure looks about the same. You know the similarities are way more than superficial...~

"If you want to examine me properly, you could ask..."

~Sorry. Can't stop thinking like a medic. Just, I didn't want to quit, stupidly backed myself into it. Truth is, there's nothing else in life I ever really wanted to do...~

"So why did you quit then?"

~To piss my parents off, I suppose. I got in trouble at school, they said I needed to rethink my attitude, I told my parents I wasn't going back on the school's terms, I'd rather quit. No surprise they didn't like that. But, I should have thought it through, the school was never going to back down. And I like the school, well, mostly, just, it's a bit straight laced, and I'm not. I like a bit of fun now and then, and alright, that wouldn't have been such a big deal if it hadn't been the principal's daughter I got caught with.... What?...~

"It's scary as hell how similar we are."

Kal's eyes were drifting. ~What, on account of the size of my...?~

"No," Damon interrupted. "On account of your attitude to school I was thinking."

* * *

Kal and Kristen had managed to find a clearing in the woods. It was early afternoon, the mist had burned off, and it had turned into another uncharacteristically sunny November day. Not exactly warm, but certainly not as cold as a late November afternoon should be.

They hadn't walked far, it was literally only twenty or so minutes hike from the car park where they'd parted company with Jake and Damon, but it was far enough off the beaten track that they had some privacy. Of course it helped that the area was deserted because of the radiation scare. Jake's car had been the only one parked at the trail head.

~So we can use these tracking things to get a fix on the other two capsules, that gives us the navigation we need to jaunt directly there, even though it isn't line of sight. That's pretty cool,~ Kristen told him. Kal was giving her a quick run down on how the transponders operated.

Kal looked at her quizzically, once again puzzled by her reaction. ~I don't get you sometimes. What is difficult about jaunting places you can't see?~

~So how do you visualize a place you can't see in order to get there?~

~I don't know, I don't understand the question. You just do it, I don't know how to describe it. I can't understand how you don't know. I mean, line of sight is the first limitation you learn to get past in jaunting lessons at school. The teachers show you what to do, and, I never stopped to think how it was different.~

~Jaunting lessons?~

~You really don't know, do you?~

~No.~

~It's incredible. Telepaths growing up in complete isolation, only vaguely aware of what they're capable of. No cultural framework around them to define the limits. You have to learn everything, every single thing by trial and error. Wow, seriously wow. You lot would make an incredible sociological study for my school project next year.~

~Great. I've always wanted to be the subject of a school study project.~ Kristen retorted sarcastically.

~Sorry.~ Kal realized his mistake. ~It's just, it must be so tough growing up on a closed world. I've always had it easy, maybe too easy, maybe that's part of what I'm rebelling against.~

~Closed world?~

~Right,~ Kal smiled. ~A planet where there is intelligent or semi-intelligent life, but that hasn't made contact with us yet,~ he quoted the dictionary definition.

~You wait for them to make contact with you?~

~Always. That's the rules.~

~And didn't you get kicked out of school for not playing by the rules?~

~Yeah, well, that's why I'm stood here giving you the benefit of my wisdom when I shouldn't be talking to you at all. You know, screw the rules.~

~Did I tell you how much I liked you?~

~No, but I have noticed how often you think it.~

Kristen blushed, aware what else he had probably noticed her thinking. ~I'm sorry, I try, I just can't stop the way I think at times.~

Kal was puzzled again. ~Why would you change how you think? People can't help what they think sometimes, you have to learn to deal with it, that's part of being telepathic.~

~You saying you don't mind? Because you do mind, I can see that,~ Kristen challenged him.

~There was a moment sat in the tea shop there I actually forgot where I was, nearly laughed at some of Damon's jokes, and then got pissed off with myself for finding anything funny right now. Everything is just such a mess. You know, Ra-dalhamun died less than twenty hours ago, what the hell right do I have to find anything funny right now. I don't know what to think. It isn't that I mind what you're thinking, it's just that I don't know how to react to it, I don't know how to react to anything. But I have to keep going. Ra-dalhamun died to give the rest of us a chance. Now it's up to me to keep us all alive long enough to be rescued. And if that means that working out how to react to you isn't all that high on my list of priorities, I'm sorry. But honestly don't worry about it. You know, in a way it's a reminder, something Damon said, about how much alike we are. Right now that's a good thing, it's good to know I'm not completely on my own here. I think I'd have freaked out completely long before now if I had been.~ He stumbled through the explanation then stalled.

All of which, Kristen noted, just made him even more cute. Humans could be in touch with their feelings, they could guess about other people's feelings, but they could never actually see other people's feelings, and that Kal made quite unlike any guy she'd tried dating at school. Was it possible she had more in common with aliens than she did with humans?

~So what's the plan?~ she tried to focus, aware that here mind had been starting to stray inappropriately again.

~We leave one of the transponders here to give us a lock on getting back. I'm thinking we jaunt directly to the location of the other two transponders. Then we grab the capsules and jaunt out with them. The distances involved are short enough that it shouldn't be a problem. We'll be gone before the humans even realize we've been there.~

~Can we carry that much back with us?~

~Between the two of us, yes. First lesson; telekinetic power increases exponentially with the number of minds you can combine. There's a small risk attached to jaunting Nieb-gisgal and Gulal-ursan while they're still unconscious, but from what Damon was saying, leaving them there would be a lot more dangerous.~

Kristen nodded, trying to soak in as much information from Kal as she could. ~This should be a piece of piss, as Jake would say.~

Kal caught the undertone of sarcasm, ~you don't sound convinced.~

~What Damon said was right, the military will have moved the capsules, they'll have them under guard. It just seems, maybe, a bit insane to jaunt into a top security facility and expect to jaunt out again just like that. There has to be a catch.~

Kal thought about it for a moment. ~I guess the catch is the turnaround time. There's different ways of navigating a jaunt. Line of sight is definitely the fastest, that can be a matter of seconds. Using the transponders, that can take a minute or two to get a lock.~

~Two minutes is more than long enough to get us both killed. You sure you know what you're doing?~

~No,~ he responded, noting her concern. ~But I'm cute. And that seems to be good enough reason for you to trust me. I don't pretend to understand that, but I'll deal with it.~

~Come out with patronizing shit like that and you won't stay cute long,~ Kristen joked. ~Alright, so what do we do?~

~Okay, stand there, facing me, and we both hold onto this transponder. I'll activate it. Now, let your mind drift into the transponder, as if you were visualizing as a destination for jaunting.~

~I see, something, things, I don't have the words to explain.~

~It's the other transponders, the transponder links. Pick one and focus on it , follow it, then with your mind try to see around it, try to look...~

~I can see, vaguely, faintly. A large open space. The capsules on the floor. The capsules are open.~

~Empty. Shit. That isn't good. Three people in there working, other people, outside maybe.~

~I can sense where there's space, where there isn't space, where there are people, where there aren't people. Nothing more than that, no details, no... I don't know.~

~That's generally all you get. Some people can see more, gifted remote viewers can see all sorts of details. But to jaunt there, all you need to see is whether there's space to jaunt in to.~

~In full view of the people working there.~

~Look where the people are. Look where the space is, or rather where the space isn't. Explore a little.~

~I keep losing focus and falling back to the transponder location.~

~Yeah, you will to start. That takes practice. Just, word of advice, don't jaunt if there is any danger of losing focus while you're jaunting. That way lies deep shit.~

~Right. Deep shit. I'll remember that.~

~Can you see? They're enclosed on four sides. On two sides there are other people stationary outside.~

~Outside wall, guards?~

~Could be, don't know. Other two sides, a courtyard maybe, more complex wall structures. Significantly fewer people inside.~

~Like the guards outside aren't allowed into the main buildings.~

~Maybe, but, be careful about guessing there. Don't delude yourself we have a clue about what we're heading in to.~

~Right. What's that. Area out on its own. Looks like people, only, they're seriously vague. Wishy washy, not there.~

~It could be the others.~ Kal suggested.

~Now who's guessing?~

~Yeah. You got a better idea?~

~No, no better ideas. Look, how do you keep your concentration up long enough to do this? I'm struggling here. I can certainly see why this is not exactly the fastest way to jaunt anywhere.~

~Practice. You'll get the hang of it in time.~

~The one other someone who was in that room with them has just headed out. If we're going to take this gamble, I don't see there being a better time.~

~Take my hands, hold on. I'll make sure you don't drift off.~

Kristen didn't figure the sensation was much different from regular jaunting, it just seemed to take a few seconds longer than normal.

They found themselves in a makeshift hospital room. It seemed primitive to Kristen even by her standards. Looked like it had been office space at one time but most of the desks and all of partition walls had been ripped out. There were beds on wheels lined up against one of the walls, covered over with plastic drapes. There were various devices and items of medical equipment dotted around, and some machines connected up to worryingly makeshift power distribution blocks, and there were trailing cables across much of the floor.

Kristen looked around and spotted the key in the door. She walked over and locked it, then pulled the one remaining desk across to act as a makeshift barricade. It wasn't much, but she figured it would keep people out for the minute or two they would need to make their escape.~

Kal was already examining Nieb-gisgal and Gulal-ursan. ~This is not good.~

~Problems?~

~Bloody interfering idiot humans, Jake was right about them. When they took them Nieb-gisgal and Gulal-ursan of the capsules, the induced stasis was disrupted. Their metabolism is slowly reverting to normal, but they aren't ready to survive yet. I need... Shit. I had this all under control until they bloody messed with it. And what the hell is this medieval crap they're hooked up to. Monitoring stuff I think. I don't know. Shit.~

She could sense him thinking through options, there was one he kept coming back to. ~We need to get them back in the capsules?~ Kristen asked.

~Yes, but it isn't that easy. I need to stabilize them first. And then we need to get to the capsules, and bugger knows what we do for power. And...~

~And we could be out of time any second now.~

~I'm having issues thinking this through. I thought that we could grab them and walk away. We can't jaunt them out in this state it's way too dangerous. I have no clue what we do now.~

Kristen could sense his frustration growing. ~Start doing whatever it is you can. Keep them alive a little bit longer. If we have to we leave, we come back later, the four of us.~

~I'm just a med student, I'm not qualified yet, and I've got nothing to work with, no medical equipment, no...~

Kristen could see that Kal was in danger of losing his perspective.

~They're dead if you don't try.~ Kristen tried to jolt him back to reality. She stopped, Kal's mind had gone blank. For a moment she was worried he'd lost it completely, then she saw he was staring at some frame like structure with some kind of gas tanks attached. It wasn't that his mind was blank, his mind was racing.

~Oxygenation equipment. This stuff is barbaric, but it...~ he trailed off as he tried to work out how the valves on the oxygen tank operated.

Kristen smiled, the guy was sounding like a medic again.

* * *

John was sat on a bench on the edge of a park area right across the road from the local bus station. He was just far enough out of the town center to be able to escape the crowds. He'd had to make a strategic withdrawal, the dedication of these people to their shopping had been a little too enthusiastic for him to deal with right now. He needed peace and quiet to make his report, this was about the best he was going to find.

He took his new cellphone out and pretended to make a call on it, cellphones were a great way of disguising telepathy.

Carol listened patiently.

~Damon Jackson has an overprotective mother who has spent the last three or four months fending off inquisitive reporters who won't leave the boy alone. If I push too hard she's liable to have me arrested and that is a complication we don't need. Anyway, I managed to find out he went off to visit friends on the South coast this weekend. He's a needle in a haystack down there. I think we're going to need that beacon.~ John's afternoon had not been particularly productive.

Carol had little to offer to cheer him up. ~Not much luck here either. We've made it to Ambleside, which is as close as I think we're going to get to the restricted area without drawing too much attention.~

Carol and Elizabeth were sat in a tea shop in Ambleside. The only tea shop in town that was open as it had turned out. Carol was enjoying the first toasted teacake she'd had in years. The ones she got on other planets just weren't the same.

Elizabeth added her report. ~I've got us all checked in to a bed and breakfast here. Turned out to be easier than we expected for a bank holiday weekend out of season, not many people wanting to sleep this close to a radiation leak~

~How _is_ the radiation?~

Carol tapped on the geiger counter she was carrying. ~Readings are consistent with background levels we would expect around here. No indication of anything abnormal.~

John wasn't surprised. ~There wouldn't be. How many people are going to go around taking radiation readings to check if the official story is true? And if anyone does point out they can't detect anything, I'm sure they'll be reassured that's because the radiation fallout area has been successfully contained and decontaminated.~

Carol and Elizabeth exchanged a glance, they were used to John's little rants against officialdom.

~John, we've surveyed the hills around here. Based on the estimated crash site we think the most likely place to mount the distress beacon would be Wansfell Pike.~ Elizabeth informed him.

~And even if it isn't, it gives us a good location to try a short range scan from. We may get lucky and pick up one of the short range transponders from there even without the relay beacon.~ Carol added.

~Well, I suppose we could do with a miracle or two right now.~ John noted cynically. ~What kind of people have stayed around?~

Elizabeth jumped in to answer that one. ~The usual suspects. Japanese tourists who travelled too far to change their plans now. A few of the Great British stalwarts who came to go hiking and will not be deterred by any amount of wind or rain or radiation poisoning.~

~No sightings of aliens?~

~None.~

~Pity.~ John concluded. ~Alright, you two go ahead and scout out that Wansfell Pike. I have one more lead I want to try while I'm down here. I managed to get an address for this Jake Laris. I was also able to establish that he and this Damon appear to spend a lot of time hanging out together these days. It isn't far from here, so I think it's worth heading that way, see if I have any more luck there.~

* * *

Jake and Damon had been climbing for about an hour and a half. Jake was pretty happy about how well his knee was holding out, the hiking stick he'd bought before setting off was turning out to be a major help. All things considered it was an enjoyable way to spend the afternoon. A chance to get some fresh, sheep scented air, and a chance for some deep, meaningful conversation.

"You're totally batshit insane if you think this is going to work," Damon pointed out.

"Go on, tell me what you really think." Jake responded sarcastically.

Wansfell Pike was far enough from the exclusion zone that it was still getting some fairly heavy tourist traffic. Enough traffic that Damon was doubtful they'd be able to erect anything up top of there without someone getting suspicious. And as always he was more than happy to tell Jake exactly what he thought.

"Going waterskiing only a week after you got the cast off your leg, that's insane. Helping an alien on the run from the military, that's insane. Do you see the pattern here?"

"But you only like me because I'm insane like that."

"You that desperate to be liked?"

"I'm that desperate to stay alive. And we need each other to stay alive. We're in this together whether we like it or not."

"So you're only nice to me because your life depends on it."

"That would be a fair summary of the situation."

"That's a bollocks summary of the situation, Jake, and you know it. You like doing the right thing, you just always have to disguise that by pretending to be a smug, selfish bastard. Well that might fool the monkeys, but it doesn't fool me."

"So why are you helping Kal?"

"We both know what'll happen if the humans catch him. I don't need any more excuse than that to want to help. You got a problem with that?"

"Piss off, Damon, you know I don't. It's just, generally people find selfish interest more believable than altruism. The truth isn't always the easier reality to have to justify."

"Jake, this is me you're talking to. You don't need to justify anything to me. I've seen your mind, I know your deepest, darkest secrets and I still trust you. I just wish you'd quit all the pretense. At least when you're talking to me."

Jake stopped as they reached the top. Damon was right. "Sorry. It's just, force of habit."

Damon ignored him, he hadn't needed the apology, he knew Jake too well for that. He was much more interested in looking out across the valley. "Wow, now this is what I call a view. Not exactly not seeing anywhere inconspicuous around here to assemble the beacon though. What do you think?"

"Right here at the summit."

Damon frowned. "What Kal said was..."

"But Kal doesn't understand the human mentality."

"Keeping it a little bit out of the way does make a certain sense though, regardless of the culture."

"If we tried to keep it hidden, that would just make it more obvious. Trust me. We stick it in plain sight, everyone will look at it, reach their own conclusions about what it is, and that will be the end of the story."

"I think you're asking for trouble making it this obvious. The authorities will be looking for anything suspicious."

"And half hidden would be twice as suspicious. No alien would be stupid enough to put it here, that's why it's pure genius."

"So what are you expecting people to think?"

"Weather monitoring equipment."

"And why are they going to think that?"

Jake brandished a permanent marker. "On account of the label on it that is going to say 'property of the met office'."

Damon tried not to smirk. The idea was typically bloody Jake. "And that's enough to keep people from messing with it?" he challenged half-heartedly.

"You want to argue about this?"

"Is there any point?"

"If you absolutely, totally think I'm wrong, then come up with an alternative and we'll talk about it."

Damon shrugged. "I never understand how your mind works at times, but I guess you get away with it often enough..."

"Is that a complement I'm hearing?"

"If you think it's worth a gamble, I'll trust you. I'm just pointing out, subtle it isn't."

"Thanks." Jake joked as they set to work on erecting the mast. It was a pretty simple job, and it only took them a matter of minutes before the structure was complete and they had activated the relay. The thing resembled a steel pylon that stood about eight feet tall. It was fairly anonymous from the point of view that it didn't look particularly alien, the met office label wasn't entirely improbable, however the thing was definitely not discrete.

Damon stood back to survey their work. "Wish we could hang around. I figure it would be pretty interesting to see what the other aliens are like."

"Dunno," Jake wasn't convinced. "Boring lot the way Kal talks about them."

* * *

~John?~ Carol called out. She was sat with Elizabeth on a picnic bench on the edge of a car park. They'd needed a location where they could spread out the maps a little more easily than they'd been able to manage in the tea shop, and also somewhere that afforded them a little more privacy. The car park wasn't completely deserted, a single solitary car was parked there, but the owners were nowhere around, it was good enough.

There was a moment or two delay before John replied. When he did, he sounded frustrated. ~Please tell me you have some good news for a change.~

~The relay beacon just went online.~

"Finally!" John exclaimed out loud, then realized somewhat self-consciously that the people in the pub were giving him funny looks. They already thought he was crazy, coming into there asking odd questions about a traffic accident that had happened on the road outside ten months earlier.

~Things not going well?...~ Elizabeth was hesitant to ask.

John sighed. ~I can't find a single person will even admit this Jake Laris exists. I can see people are blatantly lying, but that doesn't help. He seems to inspire a level of trust in people that makes them willing to tell any lies necessary to protect him. And these people talk to each other. I asked the first person I contacted there a few questions about him, and every person I tried to contact after that had already been warned about me. I had a feeling like I had walked in on some conspiracy to cover something up. I'm not going to get anywhere here.~

~Then you might want to head on up this way. We're looking at the maps now, the area is fairly exposed so I don't know how...~ Elizabeth paused as she momentarily lost contact.

John materialized next to them.

Elizabeth continued out loud. "So I don't know how close we can safely jaunt in without being seen. We might have to hike some."

"They chose a hill we have to hike up?" John frowned. "They seem intent on making this difficult for us."

* * *

**It's Not All Bad News, Some Is Worse**

* * *

The farmhouse was making her claustrophobic, there wasn't any easy escape, nowhere she could get some momentary peace and quiet. She wandered slowly around the edge of the kitchen, it was also difficult to get decent cellphone reception anywhere inside the buildings, particularly the house itself.

Sierpinski had finally relented and allowed the Doctor and the rest of the team to take a break for some lunch. The house itself had been the only place they could set up a couple of tables and lay on some microwave pizza. It meant security cover inside the barn and workshop areas was light, but security outside remained heavy enough, no one would get through them without an alarm being raised. And Doctor Vidal had reassured her that his patients would survive the half an hour or so he'd be gone.

The conversation over the pizza had not exactly been stimulating, she hated that kind of forced social interaction. The phone call had offered her a welcome interruption, the bad signal had provided her with an excellent excuse to leave the table.

There was a spot just by the door where she could get two bars on the signal level, it was the best she was likely to find. She called her voice mail to pick up the rest of the message, then after a moment or two to review the situation she discretely summoned the Lieutenant over to speak to her.

She kept her voice low. "I might need your assistance, Lieutenant. I have just been informed that Doctor Vidal has not been authorized to take any action regarding the patients that might be considered invasive."

The Lieutenant looked nervous. "What if he considers it to be inconsistent with his Hippocratic oath to comply with that request?"

"Then, Lieutenant, your orders are to restrain him."

The Lieutenant shook his head. "I am not comfortable with those orders."

She stared at him dispassionately, the last thing she needed was the Lieutenant giving her grief as well. "If we can establish where these people came from then I might be able to get the orders reconsidered. If you don't like the situation, then go away and get me some answers. Until then you will follow my orders. As I will follow mine. Your protest is noted," she dismissed him.

Sierpinski was frustrated. She agreed with the Lieutenant, although it would have been totally unprofessional of her to have reassured him of that fact. In her opinion denying the patients treatment was a dangerously stupid mistake, but her recommendations had been ignored. She was supposed to be in charge of this operation precisely because of her ability to make judgment calls like that, and she didn't like it when suits in Whitehall tried telling her how to do her job. It was these kind of politics that reminded her why she preferred cats to people.

* * *

Three figures materialized underneath a rocky outcrop. It was well off to the side and out of sight of the long pathway up Wansfell Pike. They hesitated, quickly getting their bearings and trying to judge the quietest moment to make a move. It wasn't easy, it was late afternoon but the stream of tourists marching up the hillside seemed never ending.

John was irritated. "They could have picked any out of the way summit within fifty miles, they had to pick the busiest. When we find them I think a serious lecture in surviving a hostile planetfall will be in order."

"I once wondered if you would mellow with age, but you haven't." Elizabeth thought out loud.

Carol was less charitable; "John, mellow with age? I can't say I ever imagined that was possible."

"If you two are quite done?"

They picked their moment, rounded the outcrop and climbed steeply up to join the path. The summit still looked a long way off, it was a delay they would rather have avoided, but this was as close as they'd figured they could get without risking too much unwanted attention.

Carol smiled and waved a cheery "Good afternoon" to a group of Japanese tourists as they passed. In the distance they could see only a couple of people still at the summit, most people on the path seemed to be on their way down rather than up. Carol was reassured, that ought to make things a little easier for them.

The rest of the hike up did little improve John's temperament.

Elizabeth couldn't keep a straight face any longer. "What about those two boys we passed. All they could think about was how 1970s we looked."

"I think John would have clipped them round the ear for thinking that if it hadn't given away the fact we were telepathic," Carol agreed.

"Teenagers today just have no respect for their elders. And frankly, considering what they were wearing, they have little right to be criticizing our fashion sense."

Carol was trying not to sound too much like an old school-mistress, but she knew that sometimes someone had to fulfill that role. "Don't be such an old fuddy-duddy, John. And we might want to pay some attention to what they were thinking, we're supposed to be keeping ourselves inconspicuous here."

"And talking about staying inconspicuous..." Elizabeth observed sarcastically, looking at the eight feet high aerial that had been mounted on the summit.

John was looking at it with a disgust that made it clear his irritation wasn't about to be forgotten any time soon. "I have to confess I am astounded at the level of incompetence being exhibited here. What idiot did this?"

Carol made short work of retrieving the relay as John was busy disconnecting the aerial. He pulled off the 'property of the met office' sticker in disgust. "I suppose this is somebody's idea of a joke. Probably those two disreputable kids we saw."

Elizabeth glanced back at them as she kept watch. "Getting a signal?"

"Four signals," she hesitated knowing John was not going to be much impressed with the rest of what she had to say. "They've split up, one signal is miles away from the others."

"Stick together, don't wander off. Twice as many groups is twice as hard to find." John cynically recited the line from the safety briefing everyone had to sit through every time they got into a passenger spacecraft. "I always thought it was pointless to repeat that stuff time after time after time. But they do, and people still don't listen."

"It isn't going to be a problem if they've stayed in telepathic contact," Carol pointed out.

John was not about to be reassured. "As stupid as these people seem to be, I wouldn't count on it. Anyway, as little time as we have, we can't afford to take a chance. We have no choice, we have to split up and go after all of them.

* * *

~And on the way down, I tell you, there are some weird people hike in the Lake District. These three, dressed like they stepped straight out of the 1970s. I thought Jake was about to burst a gut laughing. And the matching belts, wow, just, disturbing. You know 1970s retro came and went, and these were like pensioners, they looked like they did the 1970s thing the first time round. So how are you doing?~ Damon asked.

Kristen was still in the makeshift medical facility that had been set up at the farmhouse, still stood by the door keeping watch, still surprised they'd made it this long without being found out. Chatting with Damon was keeping her helpfully distracted. ~Don't know, he's busy doing weird medical stuff. I don't understand. Seems to know what he's doing. So where are you now?~

~We got done, headed back to the square, where we were suppose to be meeting you about now.~

~Yeah. This has taken a lot longer than I figured it would. Look, okay, hold on, I'm sensing people approaching. I'll get back to you, don't go away.~ Kristen looked across at Kal who was still working away. She hated interrupting him, but there was definitely someone out there in the corridor headed their way. ~Kal, trouble, I think we've got company.~

Kal stayed focussed. ~A few more minutes.~

The door handle turned, someone was trying to get in.

~We don't have a few more minutes.~

Kristen could hear shouting in the corridor outside. "It's been locked from the other side. Key's still in. Raise the alarm."

~Kal, time's up.~

~One more minute, I'm trying to get a reading from this stupid monitor thing. I don't understand the calibration, but I should be able to judge relative settings, I still need to fine tune the oxygen levels. It's close but I can do better.~

~They're in worse shit if we don't stay alive.~

~Get a reverse lock on the transponder then. Start the process of jaunting us out of here.~

Kristen picked up the transponder, she was nervous, she wasn't really sure what she was doing. She could see the woods, well, she was pretty sure it was the woods, but she couldn't hold the focus. She lost focus completely when there was a sudden loud, abrupt crunching sound from outside.

~What the hell was that?~ Kal jumped.

The noise came again. ~Axe, something like that. They're trying to smash through the lock.~ The door was now jammed against the desk, but that wasn't going to hold long.

~Alright, I'm done. I hope.~ Kal joined her in the middle of the room as the assault continued. The lock had given way and they were now targeting the door itself. There was another crash as the door was rammed hard, shifting the desk a few centimeters.

~I can't keep my focus, they'll be in here before...~ Kristen was shaking.

~Shit. Take my hands, let me try.~ Kal tried to take the transponder from Kristen but she fumbled and dropped it.

There was another attempt at the door. This time the desk was pushed far enough out of the way for them to be able to get in, the door had bounced back shut, there was a pause as the soldiers outside prepared to storm the room.

Kristen reached down for the transponder, but Kal stopped her. ~No time. Plan B. Call Jake, Damon now.~

Kristen was clueless but followed instructions. ~Jake...~

Kal seized the telepathic link almost as soon as she had established it. ~Jake, Damon. Visualize. Show us where you are. _Now_.~

~What?~ Kristen had lost her connection with what was going on.

~Can you see where they are?~ Kal prompted her.

~Yes.~

~Easy as line of sight, just lock on to their line of sight. Don't stop, don't think, just jaunt.~  


* * *

Sierpinski ran into the room. Hours of nothing happening, then all the excitement had come at once. The web site for her cats was going to have to wait. She wasn't sure she ought to be this excited when things were going wrong, but they were going wrong in ways no one seemed to understand, that was the kind of challenge she lived for. "Report, Lieutenant," she tried to catch her breath.

"This was on the floor when we entered the room." The Lieutenant held up the dropped transponder. "Identical to the two we found in the occupied capsules, and missing from the unoccupied capsules. No question, the two other survivors, the ones who escaped, they were here."

"How the hell did they get in?" Sierpinski looked around the room, looking for cameras. These were makeshift facilities but there still should have been cameras. "Surveillance?"

"Nothing in here. Nearest cameras were out in the hall, we've been through every frame. No one in, no one out."

Bloody typical, no cameras in the one place they needed them. She took a deep breath and resisted her desire to have somebody strung up for that, there was no point now. Probably no point. "We sure they've gone?"

"Infrared sweep of the place, seeing nothing."

"Like you saw nothing on the cameras? Which means you don't know," she didn't bother concealing her irritation.

"We can't be sure of anything."

"How did they get out?"

"This room was sealed from the inside. We had to force our way in. There was no one in there when we entered the room."

Sierpinski looked around again. There was no other way in or out, nothing. "So their ability to escape was as miraculous as their ability to get in?"

"Pretty much."

"Complete disaster, then," she summed up.

The Lieutenant was sounding nervous, defensive. "You gave orders to restrict access to the buildings to those who had a need to know. We didn't have the coverage we needed inside here. But the area is surrounded, we're double strength on the outside, that should have compensated."

"It's okay," Sierpinski wasn't in a mood to dwell on failure. "I'm not looking to blame anyone right now. Partly my fault for allowing us a lunch break. But I want to make sure we're more prepared next time. The need for containment no longer justifying the risks. I want you to get these two out of here and somewhere a lot more secure. I want that happening within the hour. Until then, surveillance in here at _all _times, and identify where else we're lacking. Anything you miss, next time I _will_ hold you responsible for."

"Understood."

"What else, Lieutenant? You've covered the facts, give me some more."

"The indication is that they dropped this device accidentally. I don't see it being left for any reason."

"Unless it's some kind of surveillance device of theirs..." Sierpinski pointed out.

The Lieutenant nodded and the transponder was quickly removed from the room. It was clear he thought the precaution unnecessary though. "It was dropped rather than placed or concealed. I think they were interrupted, I think they left in a hurry."

"I think they'll be back, don't you?"

"I would say that's a certainty."

Sierpinski was troubled. A full scale military lock down and all her precautions had been little more than an irritation to these people. Who the hell were they? There were very few foreign powers with the capacity to pull off something quite as impressive, and thankfully those that were, they were all friendly. So why had no one owned up yet? What the hell were they up to? How had they even found their way to the farmhouse? Did they have some way of tracking the capsules?

She'd given the Doctor long enough. "So, Doctor. What exactly were they doing in in here? And how long were they in here for?"

Doctor Vidal was still busy examining the patients, he didn't seem to appreciate the interruption. He answered without breaking his concentration on the task in hand. "You know exactly how long we were eating pizza for. They had twenty minutes access at most."

"What exactly do they appear to have spent that time doing," she persisted, she wasn't going to allow the Doctor to ignore her.

"What I was planning to do. Only better."

"How?"

The Doctor finally stopped and looked at her. "Beats the hell out of me." He gestured at the equipment that was stacked up against the wall. "They modified the oxygenator, it's hooked into the suits the patients are wearing. I would have hooked it directly into the patients, but, this way is clearly less invasive which is good. I don't pretend to understand how it's working, but the readings speak for themselves. Oxygenation has increased by about 30%. That's enough to keep them alive indefinitely. They came in here and they saved the lives of these two patients, and right now I feel a little bit like a witch-doctor in comparison."

Sierpinski pondered the revelation for a moment. Was the Doctor devious enough to have made that all up to get around her orders? Had he faked all this before heading across for lunch? Well, if he had, he'd made her life a whole lot easier. "Looks like they saved me from a very difficult decision, Doctor. However, from now on I want those patients under round the clock surveillance. Sorry if that gets in your way, but deal with it. And get prepared to move them out."

The Doctor frowned at her. He had guessed at her suspicions. "I'm not in the habit of lying, I didn't do this. And you're Lieutenant is damned right, they'll be back. You'd better know what you're doing, you're playing a dangerous game here."

Sierpinski stared at him coldly. "I'm playing to win, and I hold the aces."

"And what if their idea of poker is to pull a gun on you and taking the aces back by force?"

She smiled gently. "They didn't though, Doctor, did they? They came in and they spent all their time attending to the medical needs of their comrades. If they'd had any way of getting those two out of here, they'd have done it already. The conclusion is that they're either unable or unwilling to do that right now. And that is where we've got them."

"Got them for what? What exactly do you plan to do with them if you capture them?"

"Not your concern Doctor. Just keep your focus on your two patients there."

Doctor Vidal glared at her. "In my opinion you're provoking an unnecessary confrontation."

"Doctor, as freely as they are able to wander in and out of this place, if they'd wanted to confront us, we'd have been confronted already," she informed him dismissively.

He had nothing further to add. Sierpinski turned and left.

The Lieutenant was waiting for her out in the corridor.

"I just wanted to verify, you still want to go ahead with the recovery operation at that shop?"

She hesitated for a moment. Was she wasting resources there? Would it be better to focus entirely on guarding the two patients? It would help to know what she was guarding them from. "Go ahead with that. But I think we can scale down the search operation. There's no point engaging in a prolonged and costly pursuit when we know that at some point they are going to have to come back here. They have no choice in the end. Focus all the resources on ensuring the two patients are secure. Everything."

"Understood."

Sierpinski tried to keep her perspective. The objective of the two survivors in entering the farmhouse had been one of medical intervention, they'd avoided any confrontation. Which was bloody lucky, because if these people had been interested in confrontation, there wasn't likely very much that Elaine Sierpinski could have done about it. And she didn't appreciate feeling vulnerable like that.

* * *

Damon watched as Kal and Kristen materialized right in front of them. ~How the hell did you do that?~ he asked incredulously. Kal was listening. Jake meanwhile was glancing around, worried that someone might have seen them arrive. Thankfully the town square was completely deserted.

It was also starting to get dark, the sun had just dipped over the horizon and the sky was a spectacular scarlet. The beauty of it was completely lost on Kal and Kristen. Kal was pacing anxiously, shaking his head. ~We lost the transponder. Shit.~

Jake tried to calm him. ~You're out of there safely, that's all that matters. How are the others?~

~Stable. For now.~ Kal responded.

Damon seemed stuck on his original question. ~How did you jaunt here? It isn't line of sight.~

~It was line of sight, your sight. Apparently that's good enough,~ Kristen explained, wishing the circumstances had allowed her a better opportunity to be smug about knowing something Damon and Jake hadn't.

~They're stable, you're out. What's the problem?~ Jake was trying to understand why Kal was still so upset.

Kristen volunteered a little more information. ~Not as easy to rescue. We unhook Nieb-gisgal and Gulal-ursan from that machine they're plugged into, they won't last long.~

~I could have done better if I'd had more time.~ Kal reminder her.

Jake was more pragmatic. ~You kept them alive, that buys us time.~ He looked up at Kal, the guy was exhausted, burning energy, energy he just didn't have any more.

~But without the transponder we can't get back there,~ Kristen could see what was really bothering Kal.

~There's still the transponder you left in the woods,~ Damon pointed out.

Kal stopped pacing, ~You're right. We need to get that back. We can still do this. Come on, we'll go...~

Jake shook his head. ~It gets dark fast around here, we'll never make it tonight. We need food, we need sleep. We can start again at first light. You said yourself you think their condition is stable for now. Right now we have to take care of ourselves, right? Sod it, Kal, you're a medic, you know this shit. You haven't eaten or slept properly in over twenty-four hours. You aren't going to be able to help anyone if you drive yourself past the point where your body just gives out.~

Kal glared back. But somewhere in there, Jake's rant had gotten through to him. ~Right. You're right,~ he reluctantly accepted.

There was finally a pause as they all recovered breath. Jake and Damon pulled out Jake's cellphone and started looking at options for a place to stay for the night. Kristen had walked off across the square and was standing alone wondering what the hell had happened to her. Jake had told her to be careful, wishing for a little more craziness in her life. He was right. Crazy wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

Kal wandered over to join her. She ignored him, continuing to stare blankly at the cenotaph.

~What is that?~ He asked, looking for something to say.

~Memorial, names of fallen soldiers~

~These primitives celebrate war?~

Kristen glanced across at Kal. She'd sensed a fragment of shock, the concept of war really was so totally alien to him. Kristen looked back at the list of names, she shared his confusion. She wasn't exactly sure herself how people could fight.

~They did at one time,~ she tried to explain, ~but these stand as much a reminder of the sacrifice, of the price they pay for conflict.~

~They've learned?~

~Not yet, not really,~ she admitted.

She could sense Kal picking up the names she was reading. And their ages.

~These are mostly kids, barely any older than us,~ Kal whispered uncomfortably. He was finding it hard to deal with what he was seeing.

~Welcome to our world.~

~They say that in our past we were the same, barbaric, sometimes I wondered if those were just stories to scare little children,~ he continued to stare at the name on the cenotaph.

~Giving kids guns, forcing them to kill each other. I can't even begin to imagine what that must be like, I couldn't do it.~

~None of us could. Not in anger, not for revenge, not to protect ourselves. That's the prime barrier, isn't it. War is not something any telepath like us is ever really going to understand. But these humans, they seem far too primitive to understand the futility of conflict, they have no concept of reason.~

~They try to understand reason,~ Kristen argued, ~but when reason fails, they fall back on violence. They're insecure, they struggle to understand what a conscience really is. They lash out against those they disagree with, destroying anything that doesn't fit with their narrow ideas of what 'right' is.~

~And Nieb-gisgal and Gulal-ursan are at the mercy of primitives like that. Not really reassuring is it?~

~The relay beacon is activated. Help is on the way.~ Kristen pointed out. She put an arm round his shoulder. ~The others are in a stable condition, and you're safe with us. I'm not saying things are great. But they could be a lot worse, we're still free.~

Kal caught the edge of concern in her thoughts. ~What would the humans do to us if they catch us?~ he asked quietly.

Kristen shook her head. ~I don't know. Maybe it's better not knowing,~ she started, but she could see that wasn't enough of an answer to satisfy Kal. ~Look, if you really want to understand the depths of the human ability for inhumanity, just ask Damon about the scars some time.~

* * *

~Bad news.~ John reported from the clearing in the woods near the car park. ~I've found the transponder abandoned in the woods not that far away from where we were sat looking at the maps. It's in a clearing, but out of the way, concealed. I would say this was set up as a relay jaunting point. A secure location for the others to jaunt to if they regained consciousness and had any way of making an escape. But there's no one here now, whoever was here has been scared off. Bit of a dead end.~

~Not much better here, I'm afraid.~ Carol replied.

~We tracked the transponders down to an old farmhouse where they have all four of the capsules. We didn't want to risk getting too close just yet, but from what we can tell they seem to have soldiers everywhere. There's a lot of activity.~

~There's no way we can tell how far they've managed to get with their investigation,~ Elizabeth continued the report. ~We're registering two of the capsules with transponders still inside, the third transponder is nearby, looks like it might have been removed for investigation.~

John digested the bad news. ~You don't abandon all your transponders. I don't care how stupid you are, not by choice. I think we might have maligned the crash survivors unfairly. I think we can assume that they are now in the hands of the Earth authorities, and judging by the security they have around that place, it won't be easy getting them out.~

Elizabeth agreed, ~Especially as we can't track the survivors themselves, the idea is we track the transponders. If the survivors have become separated from the transponders then there's almost no hope of us getting to them in time.~

~We couldn't see any obvious sign of them in there,~ Carol tried to clarify, ~but as many people as there are milling around in that place, it would have been easy to miss them.~

~We do know that at least one must have escaped, the one who managed to place this capsule in the woods.~ John reminded them both.

~Who happens to have run off as well.~ Elizabeth pointed out.

Carol shook her head. ~They act like they don't want to be rescued.~

~In fairness, I think it's more likely they don't want to get caught by the saps.~ John observed diplomatically.

~They must have panicked. They must have felt threatened.~ Carol was getting herself upset.

Elizabeth tried to console her. ~Is it any surprise the way we use stories of closed worlds to scare kids with?~

John remained pragmatic as always. ~If they ran, then there's nothing at all we can do for them. Except hope that they stayed in contact with each other.~

~And if they didn't, what hope then?~ Carol asked.

John shrugged. ~Practically none, I'm afraid.~ This wasn't the time to be giving anyone false hope.

~And I was hoping you could cheer me up.~

John stayed focussed on their way forward. ~Look, everything converges back on that farm house. The survivors must know that's where we'll head. With a little luck whoever it was that escaped is watching the place themselves as well. And if that fails, then we'll give up on the transponders and put all our efforts into converting the relay beacon to send out a telepathic distress call of our own, give them a way of contacting us. We're certainly not giving up yet.~

~It's getting dark. We aren't going to achieve anything more tonight.~ Elizabeth observed practically.

~We'll just have to hope tomorrow turns out to be a better day than today was.~ John concluded.

Carol didn't need to be reminded. ~It has to be. Twenty-six hours is all we have remaining.~

* * *

Elaine Sierpinski jumped out of the helicopter without waiting for the formal all clear from the pilot. She didn't have time for that.

The farm buildings had now been evacuated except for a light force keeping watch on the equipment that had been left there, and a token group of investigators working on the four capsules. Work that wasn't showing much in the way of results, the capsules were extremely effective at resisting investigation. Sierpinski had insisted on that work staying where it was, she had a few suspicions herself about the purpose of the transponders and keeping them where they were seemed like a prudent idea.

She shielded her eyes and tried to look up. There were lights on in windows in the distance, an open door. The floodlights on the helipad were blinding and it was tough to make out much of the military base in the darkness beyond. There were a lot of people milling around, that much she could see for certain, too many people. At least the farm house had been remote and anonymous. Security had it's price.

The Lieutenant was waiting for her as she reached the reception area adjoining the helipad. The Lieutenant actually looked happy. It was the first time she had seen him happy. "Talk to me," she prompted him, momentarily ignoring the makeshift welcome the base had laid on for her.

"I think we hit the jackpot," he informed her quietly.

She nodded, she had to get the formalities over quickly. Sierpinski acknowledged the base commander before quickly interrupting her to get directions to the facilities they'd assigned her. Ignoring any further attempts at conversation she headed out, followed closely by the Lieutenant. Once she was sure they were out of earshot she prompted him to resume his explanation.

He handed her two photographic printouts. "The images are poor quality, but look at this. I would say that is a pretty exact match on the silver suits the other two are wearing."

"Agreed," Sierpinski smiled, the Lieutenant's joy had not been misplaced. This was the best breakthrough they'd had all day. She flicked through to the other photograph he'd handed her.

"That's what they were dressed in when they left," he indicated. "And better than that, and I can give you this..." He handed over two more printouts he'd been holding back for dramatic effect. "Best composite images we could dig out. These are the faces of the two we're looking for."

She grabbed at the pictures impatiently, she didn't appreciate dramatic gestures. The pictures were blurred, pixellated, but more than good enough for her purposes. "Thank you Lieutenant. This is exactly what I needed. I can use this."

She stared at the two unremarkable faces. Young, very young, she looked closer, the boy couldn't be much older than seventeen, the girl was younger. The two of them were barely more than children, how could two children, on the run with practically no resources, have caused her this much trouble? Sierpinski looked more closely at the photograph of the girl, the girl who had spoken English. Dressed like just any other tourist, and out there somewhere, watching, waiting. There was no indication at all that these kids were dangerous, but they clearly weren't in the Lake District on a sight seeing tour.

And if two bloody kids could make idiots of all the military and medical expertise she could throw at them, then what the hell would the team of the four of them have been capable of if things hadn't gone wrong?

The thought made Sierpinski nervous. Maybe her Code Black Special instruction hadn't been so over cautious after all.

She had to think, she had to come up with a way of to locate them without causing a public panic, at least no worse a public panic than there already was. She paused, deep in thought. Actually, no, a public panic was exactly what she needed... As long as it was a panic she could control. Elaine Sierpinski smiled.

"Lieutenant, assemble a press team. I want this story ready to go in under an hour. Let's make life difficult for them. Let's co-opt the public into helping us track them down. Two innocent hikers were given the all clear, but it turns out they might have been contaminated after all. I want the story on every front page of every newspaper in the country tomorrow morning."

That would get things jumping. That was the kind of strategic maneuvering they paid her for. Now she could perhaps allow herself the luxury of grabbing a few hours sleep, there were facilities to grab a shower and more importantly she'd be able to find a camp bed to lie down on. She figured she had to take the opportunity while she had it. Sunday was going to be another busy day.

* * *

**We Were Worried About Kristen Corrupting Him?**

* * *

Jake and Damon wandered back to where Kal and Kristen were sitting on a bench down by the little river that ran through the town. It was dark already, and the town was silent to the point it was getting creepy.

Kristen jumped up and walked to catch up with them arriving. Kal remained on the bench, looking distinctly tired by now.

"I got rooms, no problem at all. Even got a discount. With the radiation scare they're having trouble giving rooms away right now," Jake informed them.

Kristen looked up, finally feeling like she could ask the question she hadn't dared address earlier. "What about the sleeping arrangements?"

"We'd have got separate rooms for all us, but we couldn't afford it. Best I could see when I checked, Kal is definitely a boy-alien, so, single room for you, family room for the rest of us." Damon handed her the key.

"Protecting your virtue is our pleasure." Jake joked.

"Thanks." Kristen replied, not all that thankfully. She nodded at where Kal was sat on the bench. "But the guy hasn't had a single inappropriate thought about me all day, and, you know, I notice these things being able to read minds. Me, I think he bends the other way, maybe it's you two aren't safe."

"Jake's safe anywhere, Jake doesn't bend either way."

"Piss off Damon."

Damon ignored him and filled Kristen in on the rest of their plans. "We're also thinking it'd be safer for Kal to wait down here, we'll check in to the rooms, then he can jaunt up. No sense in more people seeing him than needed."

Kristen agreed. "Makes sense. You mind if I hang out here with him while you two do that."

Jake eyed her like an over-protective parent and tried to keep a straight face. "Promise you won't try and take advantage of him while we're gone?"

"No." Kristen answered back bluntly. Jake laughed.

Damon shrugged. "Scary thing is, it's quiet enough out here you could probably get away with it."

* * *

Kristen sat back down next to Kal. Much as she would have liked to get away with something, he was looking too knackered to be up to it. "You okay? You look like you're shivering."

The sunset had faded into twilight, it had cooled off sharply since the unseasonable warmth of the afternoon, there was an appreciable autumn chill in the air. But Kal was well bundled up against the elements, there was no reason for him to be that cold.

Kal leaned back in the seat. ~I've been on an adrenaline rush since the crash. I think I'm starting to come down from that. I can't stop shivering, but I'm not cold. I can't seem to keep focussed properly, but I'm not feeling as tired as I should be. We didn't exactly sleep much last night. And I'm hungry, I'm actually starving. Managed to suppress that all day but if I don't eat soon then I won't be able to function and I can't afford that.~

"Yeah." Kristen was caught up in her own thoughts of the last twenty four hours. "I didn't even get to finish my fish and chips last night."

~Fish and chips?~ Kal enquired.

"Traditional Earth cuisine. Tell you what, that's what we'll eat tonight."

~Yeah, okay.~

"Not getting you enthusiastic am I?"

He smiled apologetically. ~It's not your fault, I'm just stressed out. I figure that's going to get worse before it gets better. But hey, in ten days I'll be a million miles from here. I'll get through it.~

Kristen could sense some of what he had on his mind. "The problems of being kicked out of school seem pretty pathetic in comparison don't they?"

"No shit," Kal pronounced the words clumsily.

Kristen wasn't pleased. "Oh great. Bloody Jake and Damon. What the hell have they been teaching you?"

Kal was intrigued by her indignation. ~It's a pretty interesting language. These humans can't sense emotion so they try to describe feelings using words. They've actually co-opted language as a means to compensate for their disability.~

The observation intrigued Kristen. She loved studying languages, and it had always fascinated her the way the words themselves tried and failed so often to convey nuance and passion. With telepathy she could sense those feelings directly, spoken language in some ways became obsolete. From that way of looking at, human speech was a primitive second best. "You're right," she mused. "Words aren't really that accurate a way of communicating at all. Misunderstandings happen all the time, and they cause so much conflict, so much pain."

~Come on, what do you expect? They're barely a step above savage animals. You can't expect them to understand reason.~

~They're not animals, they're human beings. They're...~

~...Alright, half way between us and animals, if you want to be generous.~ Kal interrupted. ~But you know, you're not a human being. You sometimes seem confused about that. I know you've spent your whole life forced to live like a human, but that doesn't make you one of them. You're nothing like them, I mean, they have no concept of shared consciousness...~

"...And I do?" Kristen asked, unsure of herself.

~Yes. You do. I can see it your mind that you do.~

"Some of them are good people," Kristen tried to argue.

Kal spoke gently, trying to soften the blow of what he had to point out to her. ~Then why exactly are you hiding like this? Hiding who you are, even from the humans you call friends. Why are Jake and Damon scared so shitless of being caught by the humans? Why am I on the run and fighting for my life here?~

Kristen shook her head. She had no answers.

* * *

Damon materialized in the bedroom at the bed and breakfast and whooped out loud. "That is buggeringly cool."

Kristen and Kal stared at him blankly.

"Hey, look, first time I ever jaunted somewhere I couldn't see. Let me have my moment of excitement."

They continued to stare at him blankly.

Jake shook his head condescendingly, grabbed the plastic bag from Damon and started checking the contents. "Three cod, one fishcake, two large chips, two small chips and a tub of curry sauce. Salt and vinegar on two of the fish, vinegar only on one of the large chips, no salt and vinegar at all on one of the small chips. I'm impressed you didn't screw up little boy. And cherry coke for everyone."

Kristen grabbed for her cod and small chips. "We just eating in here?" She asked unenthusiastically.

The room was fairly basic, but it looked comfortable enough. It had an en suite bathroom at least. Two single beds, the third was a pull out camp bed. Damon frowned, he could guess which poor bastard would end up sleeping on that thing. But he could see her point. The bedroom wasn't a great place to eat, there wasn't really the space in there for the four of them to fit comfortably. They'd have been better heading back down to the river, or sitting in the town square to eat, but no way was Kal going to be up to walking or even jaunting that far, the poor guy was dead on his feet. Plus by the time they got anywhere the chips would be cold. It was a pity the bed and breakfast didn't have a garden out back where they could sit.

Damon hesitated, and then smiled. "Okay, I have a idea!" He thoughtfully pulled open the curtains and stared out onto the flat rooftop. It was crazy, but he'd done crazier.

"You're nuts," Kristen stared at him even more blankly than she had a moment earlier.

"It's fine," he argued, "Jake's getting better with heights, kind of. And I had a look out there earlier, before you two jaunted up here, it's safe. Better than sitting inside, and less effort than having to go anywhere."

"Eating fish and chips on the roof?" Kristen repeated slowly.

"Less nuts than eating them on the beach at night in November," Jake cautiously defended Damon, he liked the concept even if he was a bit unsure about the reality of dealing with the height of the roof.

"Less nuts, sure." Kristen shook her head. "Why is it that sanity is only ever 'relatively speaking' when you two are around?"

Damon just grinned back sadistically.

* * *

The flat roof overlooked an alleyway at the back of the house. The alleyway was unlit and there was very little they could make out in the darkness down there, but then there wasn't anything down there worth seeing. On one side of them the roof sloped upwards, and on the side opposite the window there was a large chimney. Beyond that it was hard to see, but it looked like the roof might continue on around the side of the building, none of them were anxious to go exploring in the dark, Jake in particular had stayed as close to the open window as possible.

What mattered, though, was that there was more than enough space out there to sit, and just enough light escaping from the bedroom window for them to eat fish and chips by. There was space to eat, and time to talk.

"E-akub," Kal pronounced the name. ~Means 'the trusted one'. From the mythological characters of E-akub and E-ed, the trusted one and the betrayer.~

~I like that.~ Jake stated, a slightly wicked hint of irony is his eyes.

~And me?~

"Dam-on," Kal smirked. ~Companion of the Gods.~

Jake laughed out loud. ~Shit, you can't tell him that. His head's big enough as it is.~

~Hey, I kind of like it.~ Damon complained.

Kal stuffed more chips in his mouth. Aliens clearly had no concept of it being rude to talk with your mouth full. ~It _is _big headed. That's why it isn't that common a name. The Habiruan are the only ones ever go there, and even they don't call their kids that very often.~

"Hab-ir-u-an," Damon tried to copy the name. ~Malodorous plundering abusers from the sky? Polite.~

~Unfair. Intentionally so, I think it was an insult way back in history. They just adopted the name, rehabilitated it. The words are the same, but the meaning becomes reversed by the way you use it.~

~So who are they?~ Kristen asked.

~They're the outsiders. I mean, we're all children of the flood. They just act like the rest of us lost the plot. They follow the old ways, some of them are pretty extreme about that, they won't even recognize the authority of the Trig. Most are pretty ordinary, normal people though, just, a bit old fashioned in their attitudes. They're strong on self-discipline, a lot of kids are attracted to that these days, there's a big revival movement. Of course the extremists don't recognize converts, they believe you're born Habiruan, it's an identity, not a lifestyle.~

~Extremists? The factions fight?~ Kristen didn't quite understand. It didn't fit with everything else Kal had been telling her about aliens. She could see there was no context of conflict attached to the word the way Kal was thinking it... Kal was right, she'd been living around humans far too long. Kal didn't answer, he didn't even appear to understand the question again.

Damon picked up the challenge. ~When humans think their own way of life is the best, they have this tendency to try and impose those ideas on others.~

~Why does it matter how other people choose to live their lives?~

~They're forever afraid that those others might try to impose that different way of life on them, I suppose.~

~So they're afraid of other humans because they know what complete bastards they are themselves?~

~That about sums it up.~ Damon agreed.

~I suppose all animals are dangerous when they're insecure, when they feel threatened. Violence is an instinctive last resort, from a survival point of view I suppose lashing out is better than failing.~

~We've got a whole planet of that here.~ Jake admitted.

~But people like us, we're not like that, we don't get dangerous when we're frightened or threatened. We're no danger to anyone.~ Kristen pointed out.

Kal shrugged. ~Exactly. That's what separates us from the animals.~

~Human extremists are a problem because they're human, not because they're extremist.~ Damon summed up.

~Now me,~ Kal smirked, ~I've spent too much time around the Habiruan. It's a Habiruan school I'm at. The fundamentalists believe _all_ medics should be celibate. The school is pretty liberal for Habiruan, they just believe medical _students_ should be celibate. I'm not saying I don't understand their reasons, some of their arguments are pretty valid, it does impact your ability to manipulate telekinetic fields, I just...~

~Got kicked out.~ Jake reminded him bluntly.

~Wouldn't have been that big a deal, I just lost my head. Sick of being told what to do. Said something I probably shouldn't have.~

~What the hell did you say?~ Damon asked.

"Ges-dug-usu."

~To the school principal? Shit, dude.~ Damon was laughing.

Kal was sheepish. ~If I want to go back I'm going to have to apologize for that one. But I'm going to have to mean it, and I'm, still got issues there. That's why I needed to get away. Just get away and think. Hopped a passenger shuttle home. Then it gets damaged in a gamma radiation storm, gets blown off course out of control, I wind up here...~ he gestured. "Ki-asilal."

~Welcome to Earth, friend!~ Damon joked snarkily.

Kristen watched Kal intently. She could sense some of what he was hearing telepathically reflected back. The process intrigued her. ~So when he said 'Earth', you heard that as 'home'? That's confusing.~

Kal disagreed. ~That's how you understand the word. The name of the place has no meaning to you other than as 'home'.~

~And your name for this place...~ she persisted.

"Ki-asilal." Kal repeated it.

~Just means 'the land far away'. Which is what you say because you have no clue where the hell you are.~

~Right. Kind of scary that if I stop to think about it. I could be on any random one of a thousand planets in this sector of the galaxy. I have no sodding clue. ~

~There's a universe of wonder out there.~ Jake observed cynically. ~And we, it turns out, live on planet so far off the beaten track that nobody out there gives a shit. Kind of puts life in perspective, that.~

* * *

~Chips are gone, coke's gone.~ Damon observed.

~I'd be gone if I could be arsed to get up and head to bed right now.~ Jake concurred.

~We got a plan for tomorrow yet?~ Kristen asked. Jake hated making plans and Damon didn't care about making plans, but on this occasion she felt the need to push them.

~Get up at the butt crack of dawn to get the transponder back.~ Damon threw out.

~And then,~ Jake added, ~I suggest, we do nothing. Get out of here. By lunch time we make like we're driving back from Hawley Lake to your place. We get Kal as far away from here as we can. What's the range of those transponder things?~

~Planetary.~ Kal confirmed. He could sense Jake was nervous about something. ~You worried?~

~I just know bad things are going to happen if we stick around here too long. Sooner we're a long way from here, the better I'll feel.~

~What about Nieb-gisgal and Gulal-ursan?~ Kristen asked, not wanting anyone to forget about them.

Jake had considered that. ~Kal says they're safe for now. We go barging in there, the military's bound to be waiting for us this time. We'll just end up getting caught ourselves, and right now we don't dare take them out of there anyway, because that'll kill them.~

~So we just do nothing?~ Kristen sounded unconvinced.

~We're good at doing that.~ Damon piped up. He had wandered around the other side of the chimney and it sounded like he was peeing in the gutter.

Kristen frowned. Usually she could deal with his attitude, but right now she was feeling frustrated. She was desperately tired, she needed sleep.

Jake noted her irritation and kept his tone more serious. ~We need to protect Kal until the rescue ship turns up. Then we look at what resources that gives us. That's when we look at mounting a rescue attempt.~

Kristen persisted. ~That could be days. You have no idea what could happen to the others by the time a rescue ship gets here.~

Kal shook his head. ~No we don't, but Jake's right. We go in there again without backup, we're just going to make things worse.~

Kristen reluctantly backed down. She wanted to go on arguing, but she could see there wasn't any point. ~I need sleep,~ she confessed. ~You guys make sure you clear up the mess.~

~We'll bring it all in. Damon, come away from the bloody edge, you're freaking me out here.~

~I'm fine.~ Damon reassured him flippantly, zipping himself up as he came back around from behind the chimney. ~There's a trash can down there, I bet I can hit it from here.~

~Ten quid says not.~ Jake stared at him.

Kristen finally let her frustration out. ~I don't believe you guys. Has the concept of growing up a little never occurred to you?~

~No.~ Damon fired back.

~I don't want to know, I don't want anything to do with this. If you do anything stupid, I'm not with you. I'm going to bed.~ Kristen complained. She could see she wasn't going to talk them out of it. She glanced across at Kal hoping to get some moral support but he was grinning at the idea of the challenge, she felt somewhat disappointed.

~I'm going to try with one cold chip, see if I can get the aim.~ Damon threw the chip over and missed completely. Seconds later there was a fluttering and a large bird swooped up and over the rooftop.

Kal had been trying to stand up, and he stumbled as the bird flew past right in front of him. His reaction however was completely out of proportion.

~Hey, don't freak, it's just an owl,~ Kristen grabbed Kal's arm to steady him.

"Ua igi-Gal nu-igi-gub," he muttered defensively, almost ritualistically.

Damon looked up, puzzled. ~Why isn't the telepathy translating that properly? Sounded like 'You can look at the owls, but you cannot see them.' Which, if you don't mind me saying, is complete bollocks.

Kal-umun stared at them both quizzically. ~Owls are things of myth and legend. They aren't real.~

~I thought with telepathy we couldn't be at cross purposes here. But I get the distinct impression one of us is very confused about owls,~ Jake observed.

~Got it that time!~ Damon had succeeded in getting the remains of the chips into the trash.

~You okay?~ Kristen asked Kal as he slowly sat down again.

~Yeah, just stood up too quickly, felt a little dizzy. I'll be fine. You look tired. Go to bed. I'll be fine.~

Kristen smiled at him protectively, but he believed what he was saying, she was reassured. ~Butt crack of dawn then?~

~Yeah, you may need to come bang on the door to wake us up.~ Damon informed her as he returned to sit back with the others.

Kristen shook her head as she departed. ~I don't know what's worse. The fact that you're both useless, or the fact you seem to take pride in being useless.~

* * *

~So what do we do now?~ Damon was lying down on a rug they'd pulled out of the room. Despite their intention to head back inside, they were all still on the roof.

~Go to bed I guess.~ Jake answered.

~Right. So, now?~ Kal agreed.

~We're thinking about it.~ Damon replied.

~We're just too lazy to actually do anything about it.~ Jake explained.

All three of them continued to lie there motionless.

~I'm not really tired to be honest. It's only nine thirty.~ Damon admitted.

Jake glanced across at Kal. The guy was looking fatigued, very fatigued. If Jake hadn't known the radiation story was a fraud then he might actually have started worrying about the guy. But the guy had survived an exploding spaceship, crashed on the planet and been on the run without much sleep, it was no bloody wonder the guy looked knackered. Even aliens clearly weren't superhuman.

~Any coke left in the room?~ Damon asked.

~No.~ Jake replied.

~So, coke, right, earth delicacy?~ Kal started cautiously. He'd liked the fish and chips, but...

~You didn't like it.~ Jake read his mind.

~It's okay I guess. I just feel like I need to be drinking something stronger.~

Damon grinned an evil grin. ~What we need is to introduce Kal here to another Earth delicacy called beer.~

Jake smiled an equally evil smile. ~Got some of that hidden in the car if you want to go pick it up. And we were worried about Kristen corrupting him.~

* * *

Kal opened his second can of Boddingtons, feeling somewhat happy. Alcohol was the only thing school frowned on more than it did sex. It also relaxed him, which was something he really needed chemical assistance with right now. As much as he had agreed that abandoning the others was the right thing to do at this point, like Kristen he couldn't stop thinking about them.

~They'll be fine, mate.~ Jake responded to the unspoken concern. ~Seriously, nothing is going happen to them while they're on life support. That's probably keeping them alive in more ways than one right now. Got to have them healthy to experiment on.~

Kal wished he hadn't sensed so much truth underlying the humor there, but the reassurance was helpful in the short term. Beyond that, the rescue ship would turn up and they'd all be out of there safely. Jake was right, there wasn't any point getting worked up about it. Jake and Damon had more reason to worry, they were stuck on the planet permanently.

~So what's the deal with the limp?~ Kal asked hesitantly. ~The humans do that to you? And Kristen said something about scars. It's just, scars heal, right?~

Damon looked away.

Kal closed his eyes, more than a little freaked by what he'd sensed Damon thinking about. ~You two got held prisoner by humans, experimented on?~

Jake clarified. ~He got experimented on. I just got shot up trying to escape.~

Kal let his professional curiosity get the better of him. ~Would...?~ he wasn't quite sure how to frame the question.

Jake hesitated for a moment. ~Sure, why not.~ He sat up and pulled his shirt off. ~Just don't take long, it's too bloody cold to sit out here half naked like this right now.~

Kal sat up and pulled a small disc like object from his pocket. ~Data storage, computer,~ he explained, anticipating Jake's question. ~But here I'm just using it as a flashlight so I can see.~

Jake could see the puzzled look on Kal's face as he inspected the damage.

~What causes bone fragmentation like that?~ Kal was staring, ~Mind if I?...~

~Go ahead.~ Jake offered.

Kal reached out and traced his fingers across Jake's shoulder. ~No offense, but they made a shit job of patching you up.~

~The monkeys? They tried. I'm not complaining. Anyway, if you think that's bad, you want to check out my knee.~ Jake joked.

~Yeah, I will. And damage like that is no joke, dude.~ Kal waited while Jake pulled his shirt back on and his pants off. ~I don't get it. You actually let humans patch you up after other humans did this to you in the first place.~

~There weren't really any options.~ Jake pointed out. ~Anyway, Kristen's right, most of them aren't dangerous, just a bit limited in their perception.~

Kal finished his examination. ~Nothing much I can do for the bone. Not without the right tools. I'd need an ultrasonic disintegrator to re-break the bone along the fracture lines then re-bond it all. As many fractures as there are, that would take some time, and be really painful for a while.~

~Right. Sounds fun.~ Jake declared. ~Would it have helped much?~

~The knee, yes. The way it's patched together right now isn't exactly functional. The shoulder is less of a deal. The imbalance in the weighting now, that will lead to excessive long term wear and tear, you'll need to have the joints repaired before you're much over a hundred.~

~Right.~

~The scarring I could fix. That wouldn't be difficult at all.~

~You can fix the scarring?~ Damon's ears picked up. ~How much would that one hurt?~

~Like bad sunburn, there would be slight blistering of the skin. When it healed, no scars,~ Kal explained.

~What are you thinking?~ Damon asked Jake.

~We were out on the water all day waterskiing. Didn't notice it because there was a cold breeze out on the lake, but the sun must have been stronger than I figured.~

~In November?~

~Like when people get sunburned skiing, only, waterskiing. It's close enough, trust me, it'll work.~

~Hold on guys,~ Kal interrupted them. ~I'm not actually qualified yet. What if I screwed up?~

Jake shrugged. ~You'll be a million miles away and we'll still be stuck here. What's the worst that could happen?~

~It stings like buggery for weeks and when it heals there's no improvement,~ Kal explained.

~Aren't medics supposed to help people?~ Damon challenged him.

~If the condition is life threatening, yes. This one isn't.~

~And if we're still willing to take the risk?~ Jake asked.

~It's still unethical.~

~So is sex apparently, where you come from.~

"Ges-sur-usu." Kal retorted. It didn't need any translating.

~Seriously though,~ Jake told him, ~I'm okay with the risk.~

* * *

They still hadn't moved far. Still lay there motionless.

"Ges-sur-usu." ~That's 'piss off', right?~ Damon tried to clarify.

~Right.~

He grinned. ~I love this. I totally know how to swear in alien now.~

~Girls will swoon at your feet.~ Jake took the piss.

~You need that more than I do. You should learn some of this alien then.~ Damon suggested flippantly.

"Me Gar-Ges-du." Jake fired back.

Damon shook his head dismissively. ~'Shut the shag up'?, come on, you can do better than that.~

"Lu sah sir kud," ~if you really wanted to insult him.~ Kal offered.

Damon had other ideas. ~That's okay, but what I want to know is what you call someone who's unobtainable?~ he asked.

"Šul-nu-Ges-dug."

Jake frowned. ~Did you really have to tell him that one.~

Kal shrugged. ~You do come across as a bit unobtainable.~

~I'm obtainable,~ Jake defended himself. ~Not saying I get obtained very often, but it is possible.~

~What are you talking about. You never got obtained in your life.~

~Thank you for revealing that, Damon.~

~What's your problem?~ Damon challenged.

~My problem is that I don't like gettiing the piss taken out of me by Sad Twat Magazine's geek of the week.~

~Least I had sex once.~ Damon stared back.

"Damon, Ges-dug-usu."

They lay there silently, almost to the point they had Kal worried before the two of them finally broke down laughing. Joking around was something they took far too seriously, it was sometimes tough to tell even telepathically.

~You ever do this up there in outer space. Lie on the roof staring up at the stars?~ Damon asked philosophically.

Kal pondered his answer for a moment. ~No. I think I got indifferent, you travel through space so often it loses the magic. Life loses its magic, you do crazy things to try and make it more interesting, but you don't appreciate it until you get stuck so far from home, wondering if you ever will make it back alive.~

~Shit, dude, I hope I never get like that.~

~Thanks.~ Kal laughed.

~So, any clue which one is home?~ Jake chimed in.

~Nope. Everything looks so different from here. I could show you the star map, you won't match anything up by looking though. What's that bright one?~

~Sirius. Distance 8.5 light years.~ Damon replied quickly, then frowned, he was asking for Jake to take the piss out of him for quoting statistics like that.

~Profile the relative absolute magnitude of the eight nearest stars. That should be enough to find a match.~ Kal suggested.

Damon stared at him. ~Off the top of my head? Hold on.~ He stood up, headed back through the window into the room and then reappeared a few moments later with Jake's phone.

~Right. Try that.~ He handed the phone over.

Kal took the phone and tried to work out which way up to hold it. He grabbed the disc shaped object out of his pocket that he'd been using as a flashlight and started cross referencing between the two devices.

Jake and Damon watched the process in amusement.

The amusement ended.

"Ges-du." Kal whispered.

Jake was immediately worried. He could sense fear. Something was wrong, something was very, very, very wrong.

Kal stared at them. "Ki-usumgal"

~Here be dragons? That's your name for Earth? Or is that just a translation for 'we don't know where the shit this is'?~ Damon sounded confused.

~Not exactly.~

~What do you mean, not exactly?~ Jake persisted.Kal tried to keep his thoughts steady as he proceeded to check the footnotes. ~That just means this is uncharted territory, we're off the map. We shouldn't be here, I knew that already. It's the color coding is the problem. Ki-usumgal is written in blue. It's a quarantine warning.~

Damon finally dropped the light hearted act. ~That doesn't sound good.~

"Šed," Kal finished reading and held his head in his hands.

~How bad is bad?~ Jake pushed.

~The footnote indicates a prion infection. Fatal if left untreated, and I have no clue how to treat this.~ Kal was frustrated.

~How long? I mean, still long enough for the rescue ship to get here, right?~ Jake asked.

~Don't know. I don't even know if they'll risk a rescue on a quarantined planet. You know, I was worried if I didn't get rescued that I'd be stuck here for the rest of my life. Not a problem now. The rest of my life isn't going to be long enough to make it worth worrying about.~

Damon could sense that Kal was deadly serious. "Ges-du," he echoed.


	4. Episode 3

**Dangerously Clueless People**

* * *

"Something's happened. There are soldiers everywhere out there," John noted, staring out of the window into the wet and misty street.

~Keep your voice down, John, she'll be back any minute with the toast and we don't want to give ourselves away,~ Carol sent back to him, irritated by his apparent lack of caution.

"Don't worry so much. I'll sense if anyone's coming," John pointed out.

They were having breakfast in Ambleside, a quaint, traditional little place, very friendly. The front room of the house had been converted into a dining area, and right now John, Carol and Elizabeth had it all to themselves. John had finished eating and was now occupied with the mystery of what was going on outside.

Chris had tried to talk them into staying at a small guest house across the road from him, but now they had the belts programmed they had the ability to flit backwards and forwards with ease, and they were hoping that being in Ambleside itself they might stumble on a little useful gossip from the proprietors of the bed and breakfast, or the other guests.

Of course with the radiation scare there were no other guests in the place to gossip with. Practically no other overnight tourists in the whole town. The landlady had been talking to others in the trade and only one other bed and breakfast she'd spoken to had anyone staying there, and that was a bunch of teenagers. Carol was thankful they'd avoided that place, John would have spent the whole time doing nothing but complain about the younger generation.

John, of course, had found other things to complain about. Like the unusual activity in the street, he was sure that couldn't be anything good. He was also complaining about the landlady, a little unfairly, Carol felt. The attention they were getting as the only guests there was excellent to the point of being overwhelming, and John was wishing they could have a little less of it.

"Who exactly is the extra toast for?" he asked, noting that the others looked pretty much finished as well.

Carol shrugged. "We told her no, but she didn't appear to hear. Really though, if I eat any more, I don't know. I'd forgotten how unhealthy Earth food was."

"Didn't stop you clearing your plate and asking for seconds," John noted, much to Carol's irritation.

"Just being polite," she replied pointedly, and went back to her bacon and eggs.

Moments later the landlady walked in with more toast and a newspaper which Elizabeth grabbed.

The landlady noted John staring at the activity outside. "Terribly worrying all this radiation scare. Not that I want to scare off my only guests, but I feel so sorry for those two kids they're looking for. Tragic really. Well, if you want anything more, just let me know," she smiled.

Carol thanked her as she left the room. ~Two kids? You don't think?~

"It is." Elizabeth confirmed. She handed the newspaper to John.

John scanned through the front page story. "No mention of the other two, so the authorities must have them. And if these two are trying to keep one step ahead of the authorities, then this is not going to make it easy for us to head them off." John was frustrated.

"Take a closer look at the picture." Elizabeth prompted.

"I recognize the boy, Kal-umun. The medical student that got himself suspended from med school for inappropriate conduct, whatever that meant. The other..." John shook his head. "Have you reconfirmed the passenger manifest? The bureaucratic idiots must have screwed up and given us the wrong identification photographs."

Carol grabbed for the newspaper, feeling left out of the conversation.

"No. I double checked all that before we headed here," Elizabeth continued. "And photographs apart, the rest of the people on board were upwards of being in their fifties, she isn't any of them."

"A stowaway? How did a stowaway get on board. That's all we need. A stowaway and a school dropout. Explains the sorry state of the relay beacon."

"They're just kids," Carol argued, although she could understand John's frustration.

"Kids who'll be dead if we don't catch up with them within twelve hours . And please tell me that isn't the daughter of that Kal-umun's former med school's principal. Last thing we need right now is a diplomatic incident with the Habiruan."

Elizabeth shrugged. "It really doesn't matter who it is, does it? Whoever it is, we're here to rescue them. We do what we're here for. We keep on and on after them..."

"And hope we get to them before we run out of time," John finished her sentence.

"If the military is focussed on searching the town here, that could help. They might have reduced the number they have guarding that farmhouse," Carol specu lated.

John wasn't so sure. "I wouldn't count on anything right now. But we're running out of time. So I'll go and settle our bill here You two get back to Chris and start getting everything ready. I want to be ready to jaunt in there no later than 7:30 AM."

* * *

~I don't like this. There are soldiers everywhere out there.~ Damon noted, staring out of the window. ~What do you think, just try and walk out of here the four of us, blag it?~

~Worst thing we could do is act suspiciously.~ Jake agreed. ~But Kristen, keep Kal up there for now.~

Kristen was still up in the room with Kal, Jake and Damon were downstairs having breakfast. Kristen had claimed not to be hungry, although it was more the fact that a cooked breakfast held little appeal for her. Kal was still asleep, they planned to let him lie in until it was time to check out, give him as much chance to catch up on lost sleep as they could..

"Yesterday was sunny. Today it's pissing it down." Damon spoke out loud, figuring they would look suspicious if they remained silent the whole time they were sat in there eating.

Jake munched on his sausages. "It's a bank holiday weekend in November, what the hell did you expect?"

~I hadn't thought it was all that sunny here yesterday,~ Kristen was keeping track of the conversation from upstairs in her room. ~And yet somehow the both of you managed to end up sunburnt. What did you do, hike up the mountain without shirts on?~

Jake and Damon glanced guiltily at each other.

Kristen picked up on the emotion. ~No, I'm not even going to ask.~ She had concluded that discretion was definitely the better part of valor there.

Jake was still eating. ~So how about it, little boy, any chance you can take a wander outside, get an idea of what's going on there.~

~How?~

~I don't know, just, do I have to tell you how to do everything?~

~No, but that's never stopped you trying before.~ Damon glared confrontationally at Jake for a moment, then gave a shrug and headed out.

* * *

"I've printed those off." Chris wheeled himself over to the printer in the corner of the living room to pick up the sheets it was busy churning out.

John took a marker and began to draw on the aerial photographs pinned up on the wall board. The living room of Chris's apartment at the care home wasn't the ideal place to be planning the mission, but it was better than they'd have had otherwise, and Chris was more than thrilled to continue to be of use to them.

"We have two signals," John briefed them. "I'm trying to match up the readings between the transponders and the Earth global positioning satellite system, which is difficult without a proper cross reference, but I think we can estimate this is accurate to within about ten meters."

Carol studied the pictures intently. "These aerial photographs are useful, internal floor plans of the buildings would be better."

"The internet is wonderful, but it can't replace TIM. Once we're inside the buildings, without a reference we'll be working blind. This farm isn't all that big, which doesn't give us many options. The trick will be to jaunt in as close to the transponder source as possible, but not too close, we need to remain undiscovered. The job will be hard enough as it is, once they are on to us it will become nearly impossible."

"They're most likely to have the heaviest security around the survivors. However hard we try, we aren't going to stay undiscovered long," Elizabeth didn't much like the look of their chances.

John kept his focus on the practicalities. "Don't forget, it will take two of us to lift each one of those capsules out of there. That means two trips."

Carol agreed, "By which time they will know we're coming."

"Where are we planning to jaunt the capsules to. No offense, your apartment isn't small, Chris, but four capsules in here is going to raise suspicions." Elizabeth tried to be diplomatic. "It's bad enough the looks we get from that woman on the front reception with just the three of us visiting."

Chris smiled. "She's nutty as a fruit cake is that one. Nice enough, but nosey, that's why she loves being on reception, gets to poke her nose into everyone's business."

Carol reminisced, "It's a pity we had to decommission the old lab. We couldn't use that store room, the one in the basement of Debenhams could we?"

John wasn't enthusiastic about the idea. "The further we have to jaunt carrying those capsules, the riskier the navigation is going to get. Jaunting them all the way back to London without TIM to help, that's pushing it."

"There's an old barn out back here. Used for storage, no one ever goes there," Chris suggested.

"Sounds perfect." John preferred that idea. "We'll go down there, program the belts to be able to bring us back there."

"What about the last transponder?" Elizabeth asked.

John thought for a moment. "Monitor it, if it moves then we need to be ready for one of us to jaunt there immediately, my guess is that the two survivors who escaped will have to head back there at some point, but they're not in any immediate danger right now. Our first priority has to be the two who are still in the hands of the Earth authorities."

"What about the two empty capsules?" Elizabeth asked.

"We can instruct those to self-destruct when we're on our way away from here." Carol suggested.

Chris was curious. "You have to destroy all traces?"

"You know as well as we do the dangers of the Earth authorities getting their hands on alien technology." John reminded him. "We destroy everything. It's the only way we can be sure."

* * *

'Hitchhikers Contaminated: Can You Help?' Kristen slammed the flyer down on the bedside table.

Jake had no clue what to say, he could appreciate her frustration. Another part of him had some admiration for whoever had come up with the cover story. It was kind of clever, admitting to a clerical error, saying they'd been given the all clear when in fact they shouldn't have been. Inquiry underway, but in the meantime it was critical that the two people in the fuzzy CCTV photograph were tracked down and properly decontaminated. It was simple, it was convincing, it complicated things a lot.

Kal was sat on the bed, silently watching. He still looked pretty tired, but much as they had wanted to let him sleep, he needed to be involved as they discussed what to do.

Damon was feeling bad about being the bearer of bad news. Sure, the situation wasn't his fault, but he still felt bad. He'd headed out to try and get information, and unfortunately he'd succeeded. It hadn't been all that difficult a task, the soldiers had accosted him almost immediately to give him the flyer that explained everything. As usual when things went wrong he found himself looking at Jake for ideas. "What do we do?" he asked.

Jake was frowning. "I'm thinking."

"What the hell am I going to tell my mum? What the hell happens if she sees that?" Kristen was agitated.

Jake looked up at her. Fixing that was simple. "Call her now. Make it into a joke, tell her you already had three friends call and ask if you were okay, and you honestly didn't think the picture looked anything at all like you, but obviously someone did. Tell her you haven't been anywhere near any radiation, but you plan to keep a low profile today because if, you know, pick the name of some close friend, if they can make that mistake, you don't want to end up being decontaminated for something you didn't do. Then ask her if she thinks the picture looks anything like you, make out the picture is ugly, the hair isn't you at all, too fat, too skinny, whatever. Get her to agree with you that it couldn't be you. Hey, point out you don't have a top like the one the girl in the picture is wearing, your mom will spot that easily, then tell her actually you like the look of that top and might just get one like it, but obviously not until after they find this girl. Joke about it like it's silly and irritating, but don't overdo it."

Kristen grabbed her phone and stepped out into the hall to make the call.

Jake resumed his cogitation, he just wasn't having many good ideas. The CCTV photograph was so widely distributed now that it was really going to screw up anything he could do to explain it away. Separating Kal and Kristen would help, people would be less likely to recognize them apart, but that didn't solve the basic problem. Sooner or later they were going to get spotted. There was no way they could get through another ten or eleven days of this if that was how long the rescue ended up taking, assuming they turned up at all, but he decided that was a pessimism he intended to keep to himself.

"A haircut might help. Worked for me, my face was all over the newspapers and no one ever recognizes me now." Damon suggested.

"You volunteering?" Jake responded cautiously, ignoring Kal's obvious discomfort. The idea had some merit.

"I got scissors. One of us is going to have to do it." Damon grinned. Kal looked even more worried.

Jake shook his head. "And you have a smile on your face that says Vidal Sassoon meets Freddy bloody Krueger. You should not be that happy about this opportunity."

~Do I get a say in this?~ Kal interrupted them.

"No, not if you want to live," Jake pointed out.

Kal looked intently at them. They were serious. He resigned himself to getting a haircut.

"What's the problem?" Damon asked as he brandished pair of scissors he seemed to have conjured out of his sports bag. "This against school rules as well?"

~Actually, yes.~ Kal replied.

Damon pushed a towel around Kal's shoulders and started cutting indiscriminately. "Then you should be happy. You get to break more school rules. And tell me this isn't as fun as the other rules you broke!" Damon challenged sarcastically.

~Jake's right, you are getting way too much pleasure out of this,~ Kal noted nervously.

Kristen came back into the room and did a double take at the bizarre sight of Kal getting a hair cut. For a moment she reacted like she'd walked in on something inappropriate and looked like she was about to turn around and walk right back out again.

"You get through?" Jake asked.

"What?" she asked, distracted, then caught herself. "Yes. No problem, it worked. And for the record, I know we can't kill, but Damon will learn that there are things more painful than death, like a swift kick in the bollocks if he thinks he's cutting my hair to try and make me less recognizable as well. Any progress on figuring out what we do next?"

"I think I'm over-thinking this," Jake conceded. "The best plan here, on account of I can't think of one, is no plan. The further we are from here, the better our chances. Let's just get in the car and drive. We get worried about any checkpoints, you guys can get out, jaunt past and we'll pick you up further on down the road."

Kristen shrugged. "Sounds good enough to me. Anything that means I don't have to look like that," she gestured at a Kal, now almost unrecognizable with short spiky hair.

"Okay people, let's pack up, I'll go pay for all this. Damon, if he can ever wipe that silly grin off his face, can get to the car, the rest of us can jaunt directly there to him. Got to say though, the haircut idea worked."

Kal could sense they were looking at him. He was not too happy that they seemed to think he now looked pretty dorky, on the other hand he was reassured by how effective they seemed to think the result was. He could handle looking silly if it kept him alive. ~Trying to stay alive is all I can do. The rescue ship will be here. We just have to have faith.~

"You're that confident?" Kristen asked him. Jake had told her about the quarantine warnings.

Kal was pragmatic. ~No. But I'm not giving up until it's game over. Faith is all I have.~

* * *

John was impatiently checking his watch. It had gone 8:00 AM already, and they were still at Chris's. The barn had turned out to be more cluttered than Chris had remembered. They'd managed to clear a little space, but they were out of time, they had to get moving now.

Carol was coordinating the jaunt with Elizabeth.

"So what have you got?" John asked.

"Not so many people milling about this morning. But it's still not easy to get a clear reading. We think there's an area here adjacent to the main garage that we can jaunt in to. From there, I don't know. The capsules seem to be under constant guard."

"No surprise there." John agreed.

"Can't you cause some kind of diversion, distract them while you move in?" Chris suggested.

"Or maybe we could pretend we're there to clean the telephones or something like that?" Elizabeth tried.

"There are surveillance cameras all over the place,"

Carol pointed out. "Whatever we try, the element of surprise isn't going to last long."

John had another worry, a conversation with Chris he'd had the day before about the police state the country seemed to be turning into. "If they see us on camera, are they going to be able to use the biometric scans on our identity cards to track back to who we are?"

Chris shook his head. "The photographs I submitted were modified, the automated face checking identification isn't likely to recognize you at all. the software isn't that good."

"So these ID cards are useless?" Carol asked, wondering why Chris had bothered to go to all the trouble of getting them cards that didn't work.

"Anybody looks at the card, they'll figure your face matches, it's only the automated systems that'll fail. Visual checks are all they're ever used for, and most people trust them implicitly for that. Makes it really easy to scam them," Chris explained.

Elizabeth stared in disbelief. "So these ID cards are worse than useless?"

Chris shrugged. "Depends which side you're on. They're great if you actually want to get up to no good. Only the innocent have anything to worry about. Every now and then the ID checks screw up and innocent people get hauled off on suspicion of terrorism, but as the government says, it's a small price to pay for security."

"I never thought I would say this, but I'm so glad we don't live here any more," Carol confessed.

John tried to nudge them back to the matter at hand. "We'll jaunt in where you said. Let's try and keep out of sight if we can. Remember, we have only eleven hours and counting."

* * *

~Military, here, downstairs, now.~ Jake came running back up the stairs and into the room, breathless, it had taken him a lot less time to sort out the bill than they'd expected. He wasn't looking happy. "They're going door to door, they want to talk to everyone. They'll be knocking here before any one of us can get far enough away to jaunt the others past them. We're screwed."

Damon looked around, desperately trying to look for somewhere they might be able to hide Kal long enough for one of them to make an escape. He found himself staring out the window, and another idea occurred to him. "Out onto the roof, we can jaunt across the road out the back, there's plenty of cover out that way, and we have mobility on our side."

"Go." Jake didn't wait for anyone to agree or to complement Damon on the idea, he pulled the window open and started heaving the bags out through it. He paused to let Kristen and Kal out, then he and Damon brought up the rear.

Jake immediately felt nervous looking at Damon and Kristen standing ever closer to the edge, both of them peering over, which wasn't easy in the pouring rain. He figured he would stick close to the window, let them jaunt down, then he would jaunt directly to their location. He'd never done it before, but he figured the motivation of being scared shitless should help him learn quickly.

~Can't get a clear view of that yard from here. I can see down to the alleyway but that doesn't help us, we'd still need to get past the soldiers that way.~ Damon called out.

Kristen was having more luck. ~Think I can see it if I get around the edge here, only one of us needs to see down there to jaunt.~

Jake couldn't watch, she was way too close to the edge for his comfort, reaching around the chimney stack to try to get to the other side, presumably for a better view. Jake closed his eyes, thankful he wasn't expected to help out. He could never have gotten that close to the edge.

His eyes were still closed when it all went wrong.

Kristen was talking while she was trying to get round the chimney stack. She felt momentarily unsteady and grabbed at the brickwork. Which would have been fine if the mortar holding the bricks together hadn't long since crumbled. The corner of the chimney gave way and she found herself clutching emptiness.

~Jaunt anywhere, now.~ Jake screamed at her, opening his eyes as she started to fall.

He saw the faint yellow glow and watched her fade from sight. Hope turned to despair as he saw her reappear inches above the ground. Closer to the ground, but still falling as fast as she had been four seconds earlier. He heard the thud and looked away. He couldn't look. His eyes started to tear over. Piece of piss he'd said. It was his fault, he'd told her to jaunt.

He glanced up, Damon and Kal had already jaunted down to the back alley. He could sense Damon, silent and distraught. Jake tried to remain functioning. He had to jaunt down there. How the hell was he going to explain his way out of this one? And he hated himself for being so insensitive that all he seemed able to worry about talking his way out of it. And Kal, he could sense Kal was... Kal was... Jake forced himself to get close enough to the edge that he could see over and then jaunted down to the alleyway.

~You don't jaunt if you're in free fall unless you have some form of inertial damping set up. Any bloody idiot knows that. You people are dangerously bloody clueless.~ Kal spat out, torn between concern and anger. Kristen had landed on the driveway just off the road. She was moaning, her body hopelessly twisted and broken, but somehow not quite dead yet. Kal knelt down.

"Don't move her." Damon stuttered.

Jake dared to look down at her. Damon's advice might be sound from a first aid point of view, but it was clear she was way beyond help like that that now.

Kal twisted round and glared back at them. ~What is up with you two? If you want her to live then I have to move her. What planet are you from?~ Kal fired back.

Both Jake and Damon looked away as Kal reached out and started twisting broken limbs back into place.

~She's lucky.~ Kal informed them. ~Most of the force of the impact was taken up by the bones. Broken neck, left arm shattered in three places, broken back, multiple smashed vertebrae. Legs more than a bit of a mess, but practically no organ damage. That's good.~

"That's good?" Jake questioned him disbelievingly.

~Repairing internal organ damage without the right tools is a bugger. Broken bones are easily fixed, that's more like first aid. Keep a watch, this will take a minute or two.~

Jake glanced across at Damon, he could sense that the two of them were feeling equally incredulous, but it was obvious Kal genuinely seemed to consider the injuries as minor.

Jake stared on as Kal worked. "Four weeks I spent in a bloody wheelchair," he contemplated, "someone with powers like ours who knew what they were doing and I could have been up and running in four minutes. Wouldn't have a bloody limp either. I had no clue we could jaunt places we couldn't see either. Still don't know how. Turns out you can jaunt _while_ you're walking, Turns out it's a very bad idea to jaunt while you're _falling_. I had no clue how bloody dangerous that was. And I told her to jaunt. I didn't know, I just didn't know."

"Not your fault dude," Damon tried to reassure him.

"Yes it is. Kal's right. We have all these powers, but we don't know what we're doing. We really are dangerously bloody clueless here."  


* * *

Elizabeth was puzzled. ~Nothing. I'm not sensing anyone at all in the building.~

~Unless they're deliberately making it appear easy, trying to lead us into a trap,~ John warned.

Carol glanced back at the two of them and chanced opening the door. She needed to get some air. They'd jaunted into a supplies closet, and it hadn't been smelling too fresh in there. Something had been left to go off after the farmhouse had been evacuated. On top of that it had been claustrophobic in there, there hadn't been much room for the three of them, but it had unquestionably been the safest place to jaunt in to, safety was more of a priority than comfort.

Carol peered into an empty hallway. "Something's not right. It shouldn't be this easy to wander around here."

Elizabeth joined her in the hall. "Unless they've moved out, and we're wasting our time here. No signs those surveillance cameras are even active."

~You're still getting a signal from the capsules, right?~ John asked, closing the closet door quietly behind them.

"Two capsules." Carol confirmed. "This way," she gestured.

They followed her through a doorway into the garage workshop area. John spied the four capsules and after a brief telepathic check to make sure there wasn't any immediate danger, he walked across and tried unsealing one.

Elizabeth checked the second. It took only seconds for the futility of the exercise to hit them.

Carol checked the fourth and confirmed. "The capsules are all empty, they've moved the survivors out."

"You think they're around here?" Elizabeth asked, asking more out of optimism than expectation.

John shook his head. "Doubtful. We'd know if they were here, at this close range we ought to be able to sense them. They've been moved, and we have no mechanism for tracking them. I'm afraid the trail is dead."

Elizabeth shook her head disconsolately. "Which means the survivors are as good as dead."

"I can't believe we came this close to fail now," Carol sounded exasperated.

John wasn't ready to give up. "We still have one or two chances left."

"We know they were injured, because they'd just have jaunted away otherwise." Carol considered. "So they'd need medical attention. The Earth authorities would have to move them somewhere nearby with medical facilities. Secure medical facilities."

"Which we're more likely to find by searching maps back at Chris's place than aimlessly wandering around here." Elizabeth pointed out.

"There's still the last beacon as well." Carol reminded them.

Elizabeth agreed. "Maybe we should mount a watch on that, keep someone there at all times."

"You still getting a reading on that?" John asked.

Carol nodded. "For now, yes."

"How long do we wait?" Elizabeth challenged.

"Ten hours. Until we have to give up because we'll die if we don't. In the meantime, we'll go with the idea of converting the relay beacon into a telepathic distress beacon."

"Could we use that to make contact with the new Tomorrow People as well?" Carol asked.

"It doesn't allow us to locate them, it just gives them a channel to contact us through if they choose to. How they'll react, I have no idea, but yes, that's the other idea in the back of my mind. The problem is going to be the range. With the transponders the range is more or less a quarter of a million miles. We'll be lucky if the telepathic distress signal makes it sixty miles."

"It works fine from orbit. There must be a way of boosting the power," Elizabeth considered.

"Power isn't quite so much the problem, it's the elevation of the transmitter that limits the range," John reminded her.

"Broadcast the signal from the rescue ship then." Carol suggested.

"Not with the cloaking shields up. And lowering those, they'd be visible to every Earth tracking station on the planet. That violates the directives on contact with closed worlds. If it were my choice, we'd break the rules. But we aren't in command of that ship."

Carol had an opinion on those kinds of rules and regulations, and it wasn't polite. She kept her mouth firmly shut.

"How long to convert the beacon?" Elizabeth asked.

"A couple of hours." John stated. "Let's get out of here. We've wasted enough time as it is."

* * *

Jake finally worked up the courage to look across at Kal and Kristen. He wasn't sure what Kal was up to, but Kristen was now lying on her back, and nothing was sticking out at a completely disturbing angle any more. He could sense Kal was getting tired, very tired, the healing thing was really taking it out of the guy, but he kept on working. That, Jake guessed, was what responsibility was all about. Kal might have his doubts, but Jake was already pretty sure the guy really would end up graduating as a medic one day.

Keeping watch seemed like an exercise in futility, there was nothing they'd be able to do if someone did wander past. Thankfully Kristen was out of any direct line of sight of the road. Jake was more surprised that no one else had heard the thud when she'd hit the ground, it helped that the soldiers had everyone distracted right now.

Damon, meanwhile, was getting restless. "I'm going to take a walk around front. See if I can see what's going on. I'm not comfortable about how long this is taking, I want to try and give you as much warning if anyone starts heading this way."

"Yeah, mate, good idea." Jake agreed.

Damon headed off, and Jake, feeling more comfortable now it looked like Kristen was going to be okay, wandered over to join Kal.

"How long?" he asked quietly, not wanting to sound like he was hurrying the guy.

~Mostly done.~

"She's unconscious?" Jake observed.

~I know, I was a bit hesitant to do that, pushing someone into a temporary coma has risks, but the amount of pain she was in. It was overpowering my mind, making it difficult for me to help her. It was a judgment call thing.~

"You seem pretty good at making judgment calls."

~Part of the job.~

"So what happens, we still need to think about moving out of here. Not trying to rush you, but, how long before it's safe to move her?"

Kal was done with the healing. He crawled across and propped himself up against the wall. The rain had eased off but the guy looked soaked, water dripping down his face. Both his hands were shaking, his face was looking pale, drawn. ~Safe to move her now. The bones will take weeks to bond properly, she'll be stiff and in some pain for a few weeks. She'll be fine.~ That was the good news, he hesitated before delivering the bad. ~But it wouldn't be good to wake her up for an hour or two, and she won't be in any state to jaunt again for another couple of hours after that.~

Jake understood. It complicated things, but he would just have to work it out. Kristen would be okay, that was good enough. Right now he was more worried about the state Kal was in. "What about you? That healing takes the crap out of you."

Kal laughed weakly. ~Why they say sex and healing don't mix. But this, I don't know. I'm starting to get worried about the quarantine warning.~

"Connected?"

~I'm shivering, thought it was adrenaline related. But maybe it's not. Prion triggered cerebral deterioration is what the caution was describing. Shivering, that would be second stage. Difficult to be conclusive, but that would the infection is progressing faster than I'm happy with. Don't worry though, I'll make it through until the rescue ship gets here.~ Kal informed him.

Jake could sense the undertones of doubt. Telepathy was a bitch at times. "I need to get the car over here. That's the only way we'll get her out of here. Only way we'll get you out of here as well judging by the state you're in."

"No chance." Damon had returned.

"Shit," Jake didn't want to be hearing this.

"They're moving in, slowly, but there's no way we'll get past them without jaunting."

"How long?"

"Minutes."

Jake glanced across at Kal who just shook his head.

Damon stared at him. "Look, I know you aren't going to like this, but in a few hours she'll be able to jaunt again. She knows how to jaunt to where we are now. It isn't a problem if they catch her, she will not have a problem escaping again when she's ready."

"I don't know." Jake answered. But he could see Damon was right, their options were limited.

Kal agreed, with a proviso. ~I'll stay with her. I need to be there to help when she regains consciousness. I can jaunt out with her, it's not a problem.~

Jake wasn't happy at the idea. "Seems like an unnecessary risk to me."

Kal wasn't going to be dissuaded. ~Necessary risk, my risk. You two go. Get out of here. Be ready.~

Jake hesitated then nodded. "Take care of her. Take care of yourself, du-sa."

Jake and Damon made a reluctant departure.

* * *

Her new office was empty, featureless, anonymous. On one hand Sierpinski felt less self conscious now that she wasn't invading someone else's space, on the other hand feeling more comfortable wasn't an improvement she rated as desirable.

But not much could spoil her mood right now, the voice of the Lieutenant came over the speaker phone confirming the report she'd just been handed. "We have them. They're on their way here now."

Elaine Sierpinski felt triumphant, her little bit of subterfuge had paid off. Finally she was in a position to be able to get to the bottom of the mystery. "They said anything yet?"

"The girl is unconscious. The guy doesn't speak English."

Why the hell was she unconscious? Sierpinski hadn't been warned about that complication. That meant they'd have to find some way to talk to the guy, they'd have to find a translator. "What language does he speak?" Sierpinski enquired.

"We don't know."

"Then find out, Lieutenant, I want that information by the time you get back here."

"Understood," the Lieutenant signed off.

Sierpinski hesitated. The problem was contained, she really needed to call in and cancel the Code Black Special alert. Then again, maybe it would be prudent to wait until she'd spoken to the two survivors they'd just located, especially now there was only one of them who was in any state to talk.

"Doctor Vidal," Sierpinski addressed the Doctor who was loitering nearby. "Find out why the girl is unconscious. That is not a development I like."

"No?" the Doctor challenged flippantly. He'd been loitering there a couple of minutes, his presence wasn't connected with the news Sierpinski had just received. "Well here's a development you'll like even less. After I noted the immunoresponse anomalies I sent off some blood samples for DNA testing. The results just came back," he continued.

"Amuse me, Doctor. How much won't I like the results?"

"The patients aren't human."

"What?" she stared at him, daring him to repeat that statement. This wasn't any time for jokes. The Doctor wasn't smiling. And of her two experts, the Doctor had always been the more rational. She continued to stare at him disbelievingly, it had to be a wind up.

The Doctor smiled curtly. "Genus Homo, not sapiens. Not human in the strictest sense of the word. Although I accept it doesn't make them alien either."

"Then what the hell does it make them?... I can't believe I'm seriously asking this."The Doctor dismissed the idea quickly. "We share a common ancestry, diverged about twenty to forty thousand years ago. In evolutionary terms if you want to think of the great apes as distant cousins, these people are a sister species. Reproductively compatible, offspring likely infertile."

"This is more ridiculous than aliens Doctor, you don't seriously expect me too..."

"The DNA tests are verified. I didn't believe them myself so I had them checked. It doesn't matter whether you believe or not, these are the facts. They're not human."

Elaine Sierpinski stared into space, slightly mind-blown. The Doctor wasn't lying, he wasn't that stupid.

"Okay," she challenged him, "now you've strayed into Doctor Who territory as well, what do you say? Give me a theory that fits the evidence."

"Wild speculation?"

"They aren't human. I think we already crossed that line."

"A bunch of cavemen were kidnapped by aliens forty thousand years ago, taken off to some alien planet. These are their descendants."

"What are they doing back home?"

The Doctor shrugged. "I stand by my original answer. I still think their presence here is entirely accidental."

"Not from this planet, Doctor? That makes them aliens as far as I'm concerned." How the hell was she supposed to make that report? No one was ever going to believe her.

"Thank you, Doctor. Get back to your patients, and I suggest you brush up on your knowledge of first contact protocols, I have a feeling you might be needing that very soon," she dismissed him.

She hit the secure dial button on her cellphone as he departed. There was no way she could report aliens yet, but that time would come, and she needed the groundwork prepared.

"Elaine Sierpinski here. Code Amber." She waited, knowing how many emergency alarms those words would have triggered. "We've re-established containment for now, but the situation has escalated. For now I will attempt to pursue a resolution within the constraints of the cover story we've already prepared, but I recommend you prepare the groundwork. We may need a full mobilization of all armed forces. We may need to publicly declare a state of emergency. We may need to suspend the government and impose martial law... Yes, sir, it is my professional opinion that the situation may become that serious... No sir, you can be assured that if there is any way to resolve this quietly, any way at all, I will take that option... Yes, sir. Whatever the cost."

The mere presence of aliens did not constitute a Code Red. She needed to determine they were a clear threat before she gave the politicians an excuse to declare a state of martial law. She didn't really trust any politicians with that kind of unchecked power. These aliens, if they really were aliens, hadn't given any indication they were dangerous. Sierpinski knew the dangers of overreacting.

* * *

Carol was huddled in her rain coat, sitting on a tree stump in the woods, holding up an umbrella to ward off the drizzle. She was keeping watch on the last transponder and not having much fun with the task.

Elizabeth had headed off in search of an electronics shop to pick up a few components that John needed to complete his task. Not expecting to find much locally, she'd headed in to London. The rain there was even heavier.

John, meanwhile, was sat in the comfortably dry and warm living room of Chris's apartment, working on the relay conversion, and taking the opportunity to talk to Chris without having to worry about Carol or Elizabeth listening in.

Chris was equally appreciative of the opportunity to get some blunt answers to some blunt questions. He wasn't the sort who was comfortable pulling punches. "So what are you really going to do about the new Tomorrow People?"

John sounded resigned. "I don't know what I _can_ do. They don't exactly seem to want to be found."

"After what happened to them, I can't say that's exactly surprising."

"I thought once we recovered the survivors, there would be time to get down to the South coast with the converted relay beacon and send out a telepathic broadcast from there, it was a pretty remote chance at best, but..."

"You're not even convinced you'll manage to rescue all the survivors, are you?"

"We'll get some of them. I don't think there's much chance of us getting them all out of here safely. And there won't be any time left to try and make contact with the new Tomorrow People, no."

Chris had guessed as much. "Look, if you want to get a message to them, your new lot. I've still got some time left, I can use that to try and make contact with them."

John paused, he hadn't been wanting to ask, but as Chris had raised the subject. "I didn't want to ask in front of Carol and Elizabeth, but I get the impression..."

"Six months at most, they say," Chris confessed.

"You seem, I don't know..."

"Happy? No. I'm not happy, John, but I'm ready to accept the inevitable. Look at me, a positive attitude doesn't change the fact that living like this is not easy. I'm not looking to die any sooner than I have to, but at the same time, when I reach the end of the road, I'm ready to go."

"You want this job so that you can feel like you achieved one last thing?"

"If six months is all I have left, I plan to make the best use of it I can."

John considered for a moment. "There hasn't been time to think about what we'd say to them. I suppose give them the usual speech about how the future of this world is their responsibility, the usual stuff. What I would really like to do is to stay and help them, but that just isn't an option. Like it or not, they're going to have to learn it all for themselves. Maybe it's enough for them to know they aren't alone in the universe."

"They've already demonstrated they're as resourceful as you lot."

"Exactly. No need to waste time warning them about our friendly neighborhood serial killer, they solved that one on their own. What they do need to know about is Stephen. Really that's all that matters. It's critical that there's someone Stephen can contact if and when he makes it back. Someone to take his report, and then tell him that he has to turn around and head straight back where he came from if he wants to survive."

"You really think there's still a chance he's alive?"

"Yes. I'll admit the chance is slim, but still a chance.""What exactly was his mission? I don't know anyone ever told me that."

John wasn't sure he had much of an answer. "It was a fact finding mission. No one really knows what the Wastelands are. No one ever came back alive enough or sane enough to explain."

"And you still kept on sending people to find out?"

"They all volunteered."

"And I remember you shouting at Stephen, calling him insane for volunteering. Him and that other kid," Chris reminded John tactfully.

"They were convinced there was something dangerous there. Something we needed to know about. And Stephen always was a little stubborn. Which is why I still hold out some hope he'll be back. And if he does make it back, I don't want him thinking we abandoned him. If there are new Tomorrow People then they have to be there for him."

Chris nodded. "I'll find them, I'll get the message to them. Somehow. You have my word."

* * *

**Some Of Us Are Dying To Leave**

* * *

Sierpinski stared at the two figures on the monitor. The aliens, or whatever it was they were. Whatever they were, it wasn't remotely what she had expected.

They were in an isolation lab, it had seemed like a sensible precaution. Although if there was any risk of contamination, the damage had already been done. She probably should have had whole of Ambleside quarantined, pulled in everyone who'd had any contact with the two of them, but her instinct told her that wasn't necessary, and her orders were to avoid a panic. She figured she could get away with it.

And the Doctor, at least, seemed happier in his new surroundings. He had decent facilities to work in and an office adjoining the isolation lab with an observation window, so he could eat at his desk and still monitor the patients. No more bloody arguments about taking lunch breaks.

Sierpinski continued to at the monitor. The girl was lying there unconscious and the boy was sat beside her, holding her hand. That was protective behavior. They were intelligent, they were resourceful and they certainly didn't look like aliens. And that was the problem, Sierpinski told herself, she had no clue how to deal with them.

No cryptic mathematical puzzles to decipher to unlock some universal secret, no glowing ambassadors to negotiate with. What she had was a couple of kids who looked like they were scared shitless. And under the circumstances she could hardly fault them for feeling like that.

There were a dozen protocols in place for first contact and Sierpinski had studied every word of every one of them. But none of them covered a scenario like this one. Confronted by the reality of standing face to face with aliens, the carefully though out plans were all a bunch of crap.

But that was why the powers that be had called her in as their field expert. She was the one who was supposed to be able to think on her feet, to adapt to a rapidly changing situation. She was the one who could throw out all the standing protocols if necessary and the one they trusted to still get the job done right. Fine, throw out the rule book, she could do that. What she couldn't do was get over the fact she was looking at real live aliens. For so long she'd lived in the shadow of thinking that she would never achieve her life's ambition, she'd never stopped to consider what she'd do if her dreams actually did come true.

Sierpinski wandered out of her office and into the Doctor's observation room. Through the glass she could see the two alien kids for real. It made them seem even more human. Doctor Vidal was standing there reviewing pages of notes. He looked up as she entered.

"Have you been able to speak to them?" Sierpinski asked.

"No." The Doctor replied. The male certainly seems aware of us. Seems cooperative. We just aren't getting through to him. He makes some attempt to speak, to the girl, not to us, but we can't understand any of it. We have absolutely no basis for communication. We even set that white board up in there, tried writing, pictograms, text book first contact stuff, he just looked at us like we were a bit simple."

Sierpinski held back a smile. "The girl was the one who spoke English. What state is she in?"

"It's difficult to know. We can't get all that close. Yes, she needs a full medical exam, but I can't do that without the cooperation of the male. Last thing I want to do is frighten them."

"We need to in some way gain their trust. Show them we mean them no harm. Suggestions?"

"None. To be honest, considering the way you've been treating the other two, you haven't even got me convinced we don't mean them any harm."

Sierpinski couldn't take her eyes off the figures she was now watching through the observation window. "Point taken, Doctor."

She hesitated for a moment then picked up the phone from the Doctor's desk. "This is Elaine Sierpinski. Give Doctor Vidal authorization to allow the two new patients access to visit the other patients. Yes, immediately."

"Arranging a reunion?" the Doctor asked.

"Yes, Doctor. You have any objections?"

"None. In fact, It's the first decision you've made that I'm actually completely happy with."

* * *

~How are you doing?~ Jake called in. He was back sat in the car with Damon, watching the rain pound relentlessly on the windscreen.

Kal closed his eyes. It was getting difficult to concentrate, difficult to maintain the telepathic link. ~Holding out. They gave me something to eat. Not as good as fish and chips. Something to drink, definitely not as good as beer. I can't sense much of what they're saying, but I can definitely sense that they're nervous.~

~Makes sense. They seem to think that they've caught their first genuine aliens. Which I guess is half true.~

~They've stayed away from Kristen so far. Hopefully we'll be out of here long before they have a chance to get suspicious.~

~How long do you figure?~

~I'm ready to wake her up now. It'll still be a couple of hours before she's ready to jaunt out of here. Would help a lot if I could get her some painkillers. She's not going to have a fun time of it when she does wake up.~

~I suppose we could try working out a way of getting those to you. You under surveillance?~

~Constant, yes. Why?~

~Thought I could jaunt in with a couple of ibuprofen, then jaunt out again.~

~What's ibuprofen?~ Kal queried.

~Shit, I don't know. Damon, what's ibuprofen?~

~2-(4-isobutylphenyl)propanoic acid. It's a cyclooxygenase inhibitor.~ Damon chipped in.

~And you just know shit like that?~ Jake asked.

~I'm studying biology.~ Damon pointed out.

~I'm studying a lot of things, doesn't mean I remember them.~ Jake complained.

Kal managed a weak smile listening to the two of them. ~Damon, that formula, show me again.~ He stood up and walked over to the board.

~Not a bad idea, ur-gisgal.~ Jake sounded positive.

~Can't say I'm hopeful, that medic they had in here, I could see his thoughts pretty well. He was frustrated, under orders not to treat us.~

~That's messed up.~ Damon stated bluntly.

~It'd be better if we had a clearer idea what they were up to. Kal, is there any way I could link minds with you next time one of them is in there with you, listen to what they're talking about, I can understand the language even if you can't... would that work or am I talking bollocks?~

~That would kind of work. Might even be a way of talking to them, you could tell me the words to say. Worth a try.~ Kal finished drawing on the board. ~Well, lets see if this gets their attention.~

* * *

"What do you think?" Sierpinski asked.

"He drew that, now he sits there staring at the observation window like he can see through it. Like it isn't one way glass. Like he knows we're in here looking back at him," the Lieutenant answered, sounding a little creeped out by it.

"He's trying to communicate. And whatever he's drawn there, it's a little more complex than the basic mathematical stuff we showed him."

"He's not a mathematician. He's a kid." Sierpinski contemplated.

"One of those kids has medical knowledge an order of magnitude beyond anything we understand," the Doctor reminded her.

"Well then Doctor. Assume that his specialization is medicine. What's he drawn?"

"A chemical formula," the Lieutenant jumped in ahead of the Doctor with answer.

The Doctor concurred. "Hexagonal structure, organic molecule. Could be."

Sierpinski smiled, her team finally seemed to be functioning again. "Find out what it is. And, if you can, get me some of whatever it is."

She watched Doctor Vidal go sit himself down at the computer terminal. Her thoughts were interrupted by the Lieutenant.

"You think it's wise to give them this stuff, assuming we can fabricate it?" he queried.

"I wanted a way we could establish trust. This could be my way."

"It could be..."

"A trap, a weapon?" Sierpinski interrupted. "You're letting the soldier in you get in the way of your reason."

"I'm offering advice and caution, as I was ordered to. They might just be a couple of kids, but as the Doctor has pointed out, one of them has medical knowledge we don't understand. We have no idea what else they know. Yesterday they had the runaround on us. Right now they might not be a threat, but what if that's a drug that miraculously restores their health? We don't know how dangerous they might be if they realize we're keeping them locked up here."

"Yes we do." Sierpinski pointed out. "They may be injured now, but yesterday they weren't. If they'd wanted to kill us, we'd be dead already."

"Point taken."

"And if it is some miracle cure, just maybe that will help win us their trust."

Sierpinski thought for a moment. The alien was staring back at her through the glass. Looking at her, not the others in the room. Like he knew she was the one giving the orders. On impulse she walked towards the window and zigzagged left. His eyes followed her the whole way. That made her mind up for her.

"Doctor, I'm going in to try and speak to him myself. If you get any information on that chemical compound, I want..."

"I think we've got that coming through for you now."

"That was fast. I'm impressed. I'm authorizing whatever it takes to set up a facility to try and..."

"1.99, and I take cash," the Doctor stood up and grabbed his jacket from the bench and reached into the pocket.

Elaine Sierpinski stared at him with mild incredulity. The Doctor threw her a small flat box. She caught it and looked at the label. "Advil? He's complaining about a headache? You have got to be kidding me."

The Doctor shook his head. "Near enough, that's what the formula is for."

"How near?"

"He's drawn dexibuprofen, you're holding a racemic mixture."

"You think you can explain that difference to him?"

"I don't know."

"You're with me, Doctor. You're going to try."  


* * *

The woman walked into the room and sat down, staying close to the door. Kal looked across at her. He hadn't seen her before, but she was the one he had sensed in the next room, the one who had been watching him, the one who was giving all the orders. She was holding a small box, she opened it and sat the contents on the floor in front of her. Kal assumed it was the ibuprofen. Looked like she was going to make him come across the room for it. The medic one had entered as well and was standing even closer to the door.

~You ready, Damon?~ He called out. They'd figured Damon was more likely to be able to handle the medical terms that needed translating.

~Go for it.~ Damon came back.

Kal gently let go of Kristen's hand and turned to face Sierpinski. He edged slowly towards her, then hesitated. He caught her eye, he could sense she was scared shitless. It gave him some confidence. He showed her his hand, it was clear she didn't quite understand the gesture. He slowly reached down and touched the box with his fingertips. He could sense the tension building.

Sierpinski gestured at the drawing on the white board, then back to the box on the floor. The meaning was obvious. Kal picked up the blister pack, not quite sure what it was he had to do with it. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the Doctor moving towards the whiteboard, he dropped the blister pack and backed off.

Everyone froze. The Doctor slowly picked up the pen and started drawing. Kal felt a little dizziness and took the opportunity to sit back down.

~You getting this, Damon?~

~Yeah, he's drawing ibuprofen again. I think.~

~Not quite. Looks like the enantiomer.~

~Right. Not sure why. Dexibuprofen is the active form, but there's an isomerase reaction in vivo, it doesn't matter which you get. Anyway, he'll have given you a racemic mixture.~

~Can I just say here,~ Jake cut in, ~I'm happy as buggery I don't have to understand this shit.~

Kal tried desperately not to laugh. ~Okay, Damon, if we're going to do this, lets do this. How do you say 'enantiomer'?~

Kal stood up again. He was still feeling a little light headed and the strain wasn't good for him, but he needed to do this. He walked across to the board and stood facing the Doctor.

"Enantiomer." Kal gestured at the two chemical structures on the board and repeated the word. "Enantiomer."

"Is that his word for Advil you think?" Sierpinski asked cautiously.

"No, I think he's trying to speak English. That's our word for non-superposable stereoisomers. We were trying Janet and John stuff, I think we hit the wrong level."

"Cyclooxygenase inhibitor," Kal tried pronouncing. He was aware they weren't exactly starting with the easy words. Still, it seemed to be working.

The Doctor nodded, then gestured at the blister pack on the floor. "Racemic mixture."

Kal nodded back and repeated, "Racemic mixture." He headed cautiously back over and picked the blister pack up, looking at it curiously. ~Okay Damon, I now know what this is. But what the hell am I supposed to do with it?~

~Yeah, that's kind of harder to explain.~ Damon admitted.

Kal looked up. Sierpinski seemed to have picked up on his confusion. She had grabbed the other blister pack out of the box, popped one of the tablets out, put it in her mouth and then gestured towards the water on the table.

Confused, Kal grabbed a glass of water and handed it to her.

Sierpinski hesitated for a moment, then swallowed the tablet down and handed the water back. Kal realized his mistake. She'd only been demonstrating, she hadn't actually needed to take one.

"You aren't in pain." Kal just about managed to get the words out.

"No." Sierpinski replied.

"Kristen, I need to wake her. When I do, she'll be in a lot of pain. This drug will help." Kal tried to get the words out that Damon was giving him. It was clumsy, and his pronunciation was crap, but Jake had been right, that imperfection was helping to sell the effect. He could sense Sierpinski become a lot less fearful.

Kal took the opportunity to head back over to Kristen. He put his hand on her forehead and started the process of waking her up. He felt his own energy draining rapidly as he did so. It was what he had to do, but he knew the trade off was going to have consequences for him.

"You can understand what I'm saying?" Sierpinski asked.

"Some. Slowly helps."

"The girl, she could speak our language quite well."

"Kristen is a language student. I'm a medical student. I don't speak languages well."

"What are you doing here?"

"Lost. Not meant to be here."

Kal stumbled. The effort of standing, speaking and maintaining the telepathic link was getting too much for him. It should have been easy, should have been trivial. Kal began to realize he was running out of time. He tried to prop himself up and fumbled it. It took him a moment to regain his balance. He noted that neither of the two humans had made any effort to help him.

"What's wrong with you?" Sierpinski asked.

"Don't know. Something here, something in the environment, a poison."

"All four of you?"

"Probably."

"What do you need?"

"Rescue."

"Is rescue on it's way?"

"Yes. Starting to worry if they will get here in time."

"Where are you from?"

"Far away. I can't translate any better than that."

"How did you get here?"

"In a ship. I don't know it works. Sorry, I'm a medic, not a starship engineer."

He slipped and fell again, he rolled over and lay on his back. It was becoming difficult to breathe.

He could sense Sierpinski trying to talk to him, but he couldn't maintain the link he needed with Damon to be able to understand her properly.

He could sense tension. The people in the room were worried. Not worried about him, so much as worried about the consequences of what was happening to him. He could sense Kristen waking up. He tried to reach out to her but didn't have the energy left.

* * *

"Shit, I've lost him. Completely. The link was getting weak, but it's gone. Shit." Damon felt he was ready to kick something, would have kicked something if he hadn't been sat in the car.

For a moment the hammering of the raindrops on the roof of the car was the only sound to be heard.

"It went wrong when he tried to wake Kristen up. That medical stuff takes it out of him and he wasn't in great shape even before that," Jake finally voiced his fears.

"Bloody great. I mean I think he did it, last image I got from him, he thinks he did it, Kristen should be okay. But what the hell are we supposed to do? He hasn't got the strength to jaunt out now. We'll get Kristen back, but. Bloody all this for nothing. We're useless, we're completely bloody useless." Damon was getting frustrated.

Damon could sense Jake wanted to say something, the way he did, say something to make Damon feel better. But all he had to offer was bullshit, and he knew that didn't work on Damon.

Jake had been right. They had all their powers, but they didn't know how to use them. That was the worst part, it wasn't that they were incapable of doing this stuff, it was that they were too ignorant to be any bloody help. If there had been time, maybe Kal could have taught them to jaunt places they couldn't see, could have taught them first aid techniques. But time never seemed to be on their side.

Damon tried to pull himself together. He glanced across at Jake, sitting there motionless. "How do you deal with this? I mean, when the whole world is turned upside down around you, aliens, flying saucers, doesn't that mess with your head?"

"It's messed up, but you just get on with it." Jake observed calmly.

Damon had no reply. They continued to sit in silence.

* * *

Kristen looked up at the ceiling. She remembered falling from the roof, trying to jaunt, that was all she remembered. Now she was lying on a makeshift bed in some sterile area and there were people there, they were trying to talk to her. No, not trying to talk to her, trying to talk to someone else. What the hell was going on? She looked blankly, confused. She tried to sit up, she felt stiff and it hurt to move, and she had a splitting headache. All she could do was listen.

Listen to panic. Listen to an argument.

"Neurological disfunction," the Doctor was saying.

"Caused by?" That was a woman's voice.

"I don't know. Nothing, no mechanism I understand. But then I don't understand much about these people at all."

"Is there anything you can do?"

"I don't know, my instinct is not, but..."

"Bottom line?"

"Brain function is failing. Neural pathways seem to be firing, but signals aren't getting through. Like Parkinson's disease, but that only affects motor function, this is affecting critical autonomic responses like breathing. Bottom line, he's dying and I don't know why."

"Shit." Sierpinski started pacing.

The Doctor continued, "if we can put him on life support. It won't cure him, but it will keep him alive longer. Honestly, unless we have some clue what is normal for these people, I don't know I can do anything more."

"The others?"

"Looks like similar symptoms, not as advanced. Probably because of the way their metabolisms have been slowed down. And they're on life support already, they're in a lot better shape than he is. The girl, it's possible that's what her problem is, although all he seemed to think she needed was Advil."

"But you haven't examined her properly?"

"She's partially conscious, but she's delirious. She would benefit from the painkillers, but you won't let me administer those."

"She has access to them. I'm sorry Doctor, if she takes them herself that's fine, but you can not administer them. Those are your orders. Have you managed a blood test?"

"There were traces of blood on her space suit from an earlier injury, didn't show us anything we don't already know."

"Could she treat the others?"

"You heard him, he was the medic, she's a language student."

"Doctor I have a problem. I cannot allow you to take any action that is categorized as invasive. As long as they administer the treatment themselves, we can support them, give them the help they need, but we cannot risk being the cause of death. Now we know they're alien that's even more true than it was before."

"I realize the consequences. Aliens come along, think we were the cause of death, blow this planet out of the sky in retaliation. Or maybe they'll have a measured response, just exterminate me. You think I want that? But even at the risk of my actions being misinterpreted, I can't stand by and do nothing, I'll take the risk, and I'll take the responsibility. If they come looking for vengeance, feel free to hand me over. But let me do my job."

"I wish I could Doctor. Truth is, if you want my opinion, I think we're screwed if we do, screwed if we don't. But this is not my decision, and it isn't yours either."

Kristen felt weak, but that was mostly from not having eaten, apart from that she was recovering fast. Fast enough to know she didn't exactly like this Sierpinski person the Doctor was arguing with, anyway.

She could already feel an awareness that suggested the concussion was receding. Still not enough to contact Jake, certainly not enough to jaunt away. But then she couldn't jaunt away without Kal. She managed to pull herself up into a sitting position, no one had noticed, they were too busy focussed on Kal.

"He's dying. He needs help. We all do," Kristen managed to shout out.

She could sense hesitance, expectation. She certainly had their attention.

"We're no threat to you. We just want to live," she pleaded.

Doctor Vidal quickly walked over to her and offered her the ibuprofen and a glass of water. Kristen hesitated, she wasn't sure what effect the drugs would have on her ability to jaunt out of there, or on her ability to contact Jake and Damon. But right now she wasn't in any shape to do either of those things, and with her head hurting as badly as it was she couldn't much think straight. She opted to take the painkillers. She could sense the Doctor was relieved. She could sense he wanted to help. She could sense they all wanted to help, even Sierpinski. But they were all too afraid to help. Too afraid of the consequences. Too afraid of the unknown. They would play safe, they would do nothing. Even if doing nothing meant that Kal died.

Kal had been right, these people were little more than animals. She felt ashamed, then angry, then reflective. It wasn't as if she was human, she had nothing to be ashamed of.

Sierpinski had left the room, called out by the Lieutenant. Kristen wasn't exactly sure who the Lieutenant was, but he had a military rank, and that didn't fill her with much confidence. Only the Doctor remained. She could sense the Doctor desperately wanted to help. He was just too afraid of breaking the rules.

Kristen had to try and get through to him. "Did Kal talk to you, did he tell you he's a medical student?"

"Kal?"

"His name is Kal-umun. He a student, studying medicine. He's pretty good, gets in trouble a lot though, keeps breaking the rules." Kristen could sense she had the Doctor's attention, she could sense he was listening carefully. Maybe it really was possible to reason with animals.

"Do you have medical ethics?" she continued, "Kal figures breaking the rules is an asset. Our medics have a moral code, they're allowed to break rules as long as they do it in the course of protecting life."

"We have a code. Do no harm."

"No harm? Is that enough? Do you people not have any concept of protecting life?"

"We do. It gets lost sometimes in the noise. Look, what will happen to us if we let him die? If you all die? Would your people blow us out of the sky?"

Kristen wasn't sure she knew how to explain. The guy had no concept of the consequences of shared consciousness. "No, they won't retaliate. Not under any circumstances. Whatever course of action you take, nothing will happen to you. But the action you take makes all the difference about whether Kal lives or dies. He doesn't have to die. Isn't that what you want?"

"I'd prefer to see you live. I just don't know how to treat this. I'm only following orders because I don't know what I'm doing. If I thought I knew how to save you, I'd break the rules, I'd do it. But I don't know."

"You don't know how to save us, that's fine. You don't need to. The rescue team will handle that. All you need to do is keep us alive until then. And you do know how to do that. I heard you talking about it."

The Doctor gave no indication he had heard. But Kristen could sense it, he'd heard alright. She just wasn't sure if he was going to do anything about it.

* * *

Sierpinski impatiently grabbed the coffee from the machine to take back to her office. She turned around to find the Lieutenant was loitering in the doorway. She needed a few moments of peace and quiet to work through her options, but no one appeared willing to leave her alone long enough.

"I think you need to speak to the Doctor." The Lieutenant warned her. "I'll have him restrained if necessary, but, I'm still uncomfortable with that and I would rather you tried talking to him first."

Sierpinski shook her head, that was all she bloody needed. She followed the Lieutenant back through to the lab area. Kal had been lifted onto a bed, but his complexion was tinged with a blue color and his breathing was clearly erratic and labored.

The Doctor was busy prepping. "The patient's condition has deteriorated to the point where I have judged it has become life threatening."

"I'm sorry Doctor..." Sierpinski started.

The Doctor interrupted, he wasn't listening. "I am administering treatment, unless you intend to forcibly restrain me."

The Lieutenant caught Sierpinski's eye, reluctantly looking for the order.

Sierpinski looked down at Kal, his breathing now becoming increasingly shallow. If he'd been green and tentacled it might have been easier to stay detached, but he was just a kid. Her objectivity evaporated. "Lieutenant, I need you to accompany me, we have to leave this room and investigate our options in my office. Doctor. I am giving you an explicit order. You are not to treat your patient while we are away."

The Lieutenant looked uncertainly at the Doctor for a moment, then headed for the door following behind Sierpinski .

"Thank you," the Doctor murmured as the door closed behind them. Then he turned back to his patient, he had little time. "Nurse, set up an intravenous. If cyclooxygenase inhibitors work, then the brain chemistry is close enough that there might be some other options. I want to try a dopamine boost before we resort to putting him on a respirator."

* * *

**Not Exactly The Outcome We Had In Mind**

* * *

"What is it?" Carol asked.

Chris waved her to come through into the bedroom, he didn't want John interrupted just yet. "Thought you should see this," he told her.

He had the news channel playing on the TV, Carol watched the report with increasing despair. "More bad news. Does this ever end?"

~What's up?~ Elizabeth had sensed Carol's frustration. She'd been taking her turn to keep watch on the final transponder, but from Carol's reaction she had the feeling there wasn't much point in her sitting there in the rain any longer.

~They're reporting that the missing hikers have been found safe and well,~ Carol filled her in.

"You believe them?" Elizabeth asked as she jaunted back. "Isn't it possible the news report is just propaganda."

"They've called off the search, they're winding down the military presence and they're talking about declaring an all clear, re-opening the restricted zone maybe even as soon as tonight. They think they've found everything they're going to find," Chris gave his opinion.

Carol was not taking the news well. "Looks like we've failed. completely failed."

"Someone has to break this to John." Elizabeth sounded uncomfortable, she didn't figure he was going to be all that happy either.

"Break what to me?" John had already picked up on the despondency and had wandered through from the other room. "And who's watching that last transponder? If they come back..." He trailed off as he caught the news report, he stood in silence for a moment. He quickly saw there was no one coming back.

"John?" Chris prompted.

"I'm thinking."

"What are you thinking?" Elizabeth asked.

John noted Elizabeth was soaking wet and dripping on the floor. "I'm thinking we can give up keeping watch on the last transponder."

Carol frowned at him. "We? You've been inside all cozy and warm the whole time. Elizabeth and I are the ones who have been stood out in the rain watching that thing for hours."

"I'm sorry that turned out to be a wasted effort." John apologized. "But the others being captured changes nothing. Maybe it even helps us."

"How?" Carol perked up at the suggestion.

"With a bit of luck I'm hoping that wherever they've taken them, it's the same place they've got the others."

"Given the luck you've had so far?" Chris cautioned.

John remained pragmatic. "It has to change at some point. This might just be the break we've been waiting for. Once we get the relay broadcasting the emergency signal they'll be able to contact us, doesn't matter whether they've been captured or not. I'm just happy to know those two are still alive and well, and that we're less than an hour or two away from finding them all."

Elizabeth glanced at her watch. "Eight hours remaining."

"That's time enough," Carol was feeling reassured.

"What's left to get sorted?" Elizabeth asked him.

"The modifications are all done, we just need to get it where we can best send the signal from."

Carol nodded. "Back to Wansfell Pike."

"Maybe, I'm looking at the calculations based on the information Chris has sorted out for us here. The higher up we can get it, the better the range." John grabbed the map and started working out the math in his head. "Wansfell Pike gives us about sixty miles and that's fairly well centered around Skelwith. But Helvellyn is less than fifteen miles away, and the range goes up to about eight-five miles."

"Who's up for hiking Helvellyn in the pouring rain, then?" Elizabeth offered sarcastically.

* * *

~Guys?~ Kristen called out. The ibuprofen had started to kick in and it gave her just enough clarity to send telepathically again.

~Thank buggery.~ Damon came back immediately.

~What's the situation there?~ Jake asked.

~Confused.~ Kristen hesitated, her head wasn't hurting so much but she was only just on the edge of being able to manage the conversation. She tried to keep focus. ~Kal is in a pretty bad way. It's that prion infection, it's getting to him faster than he thought it would. The witch-doctors here are trying to help, but I just don't know how bad it is. They gave him something, some drug, they said he was responding to the treatment. I don't know what's going on.~

~How are you?~

~Tired. I hurt all over, and that Advil they gave me is helping. I'm still a bit of a mess, but not bad though for someone who took a skydive onto concrete from three floors up.~

~It was probably only the equivalent of one after you jaunted,~ Damon pointed out.

~Still hurt like hell.~

~I didn't know jaunting while falling was...~ Jake started.

Kristen interrupted. ~You know what, if I'd fallen three floors instead of one, that might have made a mess even Kal couldn't have patched up. I say it was a good call. You want to argue?~

~No.~ Jake responded, although it was obvious he still didn't feel all that great about it.

~Guys, I'm getting some kind of sense of something from Kal, nothing coherent, but... I think he's waking up. Hold on, we've got the witch-doctors back.~

Kristen figured it was about time she tried to sit up so she could get a better view of what was going on. She was stiff, it took some effort, but she could see Kal had his eyes open, he was sipping on water the nurse was offering him. He looked across, he must have sensed she was there.

"A-na-am azu aka a-na-am nu-luth-tha."

Kristen frowned, she wasn't getting it.

~What the hell did they plug me up on?~ Kal repeated, groaning.

Kristen felt immediate relief, Kal was obviously making a fairly rapid recovery. Whatever the witch-doctors had done, it seemed to be working. "He's asking about the treatment," Kristen translated out loud.

"The problem is with brain receptors getting blocked somehow. I can't fix the blocking problem, but I was able to boost the signal. It's not a cure. There will be side effects. The dosage will have to increase every time, the side effects will get worse, and eventually any dose won't be enough," the Doctor tried to explain.

~It gives me time.~

"Any idea how much time?" Kristen relayed.

The Doctor was blunt, "I don't know."

Kal tried to drink some more water. He was making a very rapid recovery, as frustrating as it was to know it was only temporary, it gave them a chance. With one problem attached. ~Without the drug they're giving me I'm not going to last any time at all. I can't jaunt out. I'm stuck here until the rescue ship arrives.~

* * *

Elaine Sierpinski got off the phone frustrated. All that crap about her being the field expert, how she could think on her feet, adapt, be the one they trusted to get the job done. Now she'd made her considered judgment, gone off script, and it was like they weren't listening any more. They wanted caution. Too much bloody caution. They were starting to sound a lot like the Lieutenant she was finding herself increasingly frustrated with. It was a complete turnaround from when she'd arrived, the Lieutenant now advocating caution and reason. And Doctor Vidal, still on the edge of mutiny, only now she was inclined to mutiny with him. Right, like that would help.

Confrontation went against her better judgement, but her patience had run out. She popped her head in to the Lieutenant's office.

"You reported me?" she demanded bluntly.

The Lieutenant was clearly uncomfortable with the question. "They asked a direct question. They already had their concerns. I didn't volunteer the information, I didn't go to them, but they asked, I had to answer. I follow orders. Under protest at times, but you said it yourself, I always follow orders in the end."

Elaine Sierpinski walked away without acknowledging the Lieutenants attempts to justify his actions. She had a problem. Alright, she'd had a lot of problems. But this time she was in danger of losing control of the situation, not because of any technical flaw in what she was doing, but because of bloody bureaucracy.

She needed to talk to the Doctor.

"Please tell me that whatever you did worked." She whispered conspiratorially to Doctor Vidal as the two of them stood in the observation room.

"He's conscious."

"Talking?"

"In alien. The girl's translating."

"Prognosis?"

"I can keep him alive, the process is going to get more and more invasive as time goes on."

"We have to try and avoid any invasive..."

"You know my opinion on that..."

"I know, Doctor. But here is the problem, I stepped out of line. I do that again, and I'll be replaced, you'll be replaced, and those kids in there will be left to die. We need to talk to this Kal. Anything he instructs us to do, we can do, I can stretch the rules that far..."

"What if that isn't enough?"

"You will have to make it enough. Understand this, Doctor, I am willing to break the rules again, they can kick me out, I'll accept the consequences. But that's a one shot option, and then it's over. Over for me, over for you. Do you understand the consequences of that, Doctor?"

"Yes."

"Then go and talk to Kal. Don't waste the little time we have."

Sierpinski watched the Doctor depart. She tried some deep breathing, she wasn't used to things falling apart like this. What the hell job was worth this?

* * *

"Jake?" Damon prompted.

"I'm thinking."

"Thinking what?"

"Thinking I'm out of ideas," Jake conceded.

"What?"

"You heard me, I don't know."

"This isn't any time to be joking, Jake."

"I'm not joking. We're out of our depth. We can't speed up the rescue, assuming there's even a rescue team on the way, and if Kal can't do anything about the infection, what the hell can I do?"

"If we don't..."

"You think I don't know that?"

~Menden-gisgal?~ Kal called out to them. It was funny how alien words seemed to stay alien when spoken telepathically now that they understood them.

Anyway, Jake was appreciative of the interruption, the rain had eased off and they were sitting on a picnic bench under cover, it was cold and wet, but they'd been starting to feel claustrophobic stuck in the car. ~What did you find out?~

~Same symptoms, same neurological deterioration, but not so far advanced. The time they spent in stasis seems to have slowed the progress of the infection. And I'm thinking that's our answer. Put all of us back in stasis.~

~How long have you got if you don't~ Damon asked.

~I would say hours rather than days.~

~Ouch.~ Damon replied.

Jake concurred with the ouch. ~What about the stasis thing, in the stasis capsules. The suspended animation. How much time would that buy you?~

~A couple of days, maybe four. There's a chance the others might last longer, they're actually in better shape than me.~ Kal came back.

~Is this a real hope, or is this just clutching at straws?~ Damon asked them.

Kristen wasn't about to give in to pessimism. ~Right now I say clutch at whatever straws we can.~

~I'm not arguing there,~ Damon clarified, ~I'm just saying some straws are better than others. We sure we're clutching at the right ones?~

Jake had a more practical question. ~What makes you think the they'll go for it?~

~They let me live,~ Kal pointed out.

~Against orders,~ Kristen reminded him.

Kal shrugged. ~Somehow we're going to have make them listen. Because the fact is that stasis is the only realistic chance I have of getting off this planet alive.~

* * *

The rain was light, but persistent. It wasn't an easy slog up the side of Helvellyn. Jaunting got them part way, but one of the fundamental requirements for navigating jaunts to places they couldn't see was having some kind of identifiable structure nearby to lock on to. The barren hillside was pretty useless as a destination in that respect. A certain amount of trudging through the rain was inescapable. They were able to work in relay though, two of them hiking at any one time while the other was able to have a hot cup of tea courtesy of Chris.

It was John and Elizabeth who had climbed the final stretch to the top, but Carol had insisted on joining them at that point. Jaunting to the summit was easy once there was someone already there to navigate her in.

"What about over there, down and to the right?" Elizabeth suggested.

John disagreed. "That's a good location for a relay beacon, but for an emergency broadcast beacon we'll get the best results placing it dead center on the highest point."

"We aren't supposed to be drawing attention to ourselves," Carol reminded him.

"I don't think that's a luxury we can afford any more. We only have six hours left."

"So what do we say if anyone asks what we're doing?" Elizabeth challenged. Despite the rain they had passed a fair number of people on the path up to the summit.

John unzipped the bag and started pulling the pieces out for them to assemble. He thought for a moment, then smiled. "If anyone asks, tell them we work for the met office."

* * *

Kristen was unsure. She'd been hoping to be able to try and work on convincing Doctor Vidal of their plan, she was a lot less confident they had much chance getting this Elaine Sierpinski to agree. But that was who they were now talking to. Her and the Lieutenant.

"How long before the rescue ship arrives?" Sierpinski wanted clarification.

"We don't know. A couple of days maybe. A week at the most." Kristen explained.

"And a week is too long?"

"Unless we're placed in stasis."

"That's the state the others were in. But they began to wake up from that."

"They were removed from the capsules. All four of us would have to be placed back into the capsules."

Sierpinski seemed to be thinking hard, but the thoughts were dry, logical, no emotions for Kristen to latch on to. She couldn't see much of what Sierpinski was thinking.

"What would we need to do?" Sierpinski looked like she'd reached a conclusion.

Kristen still couldn't work out what that conclusion was, all she could do was to continue to answer Sierpinski's questions. "We would need you to provide power for the capsules."

"What kind of power?"

Kristen looked for help, this was getting out of her area of expertise. "Electromagnetic induction coils. Does that make any sense?" she relayed.

Sierpinski clearly wasn't considering that her area of expertise either, she was prompting the Lieutenant.

"Yes," he answered.

Kristen smiled. "Technical terms are difficult to get translated right, worse when I don't even know what the words mean."

"What else?" Sierpinski stayed on topic.

"Nothing else. Just, make sure you keep the transponder devices away from the induction coils. The rescue ship will need the signal from those to home in on, the induction fields would block the signal."

"And then we just stand back and wait for you to be rescued?"

"Yes." Kristen answered simply.

* * *

"You can't seriously be thinking of going for this plan?" The Lieutenant asked once they were out of earshot, headed back towards Sierpinski's office.

"Why not?" Sierpinski challenged.

The Lieutenant remained silent.

Sierpinski continued, "we are not allowed to intervene directly to try to keep them alive, the powers that be are scared shitless of us taking any action that might be misinterpreted as being the cause of death if things go wrong. I think their logic sucks, but those are orders. However, it has been clarified that we can offer any help appropriate to assist them in keeping themselves alive. It is my judgment that the plan they've presented us with falls entirely into that category. You have a problem with that Lieutenant?"

"No."

"You plan to report me for this?"

"No."

"Good to see us back on the same page. I want you to make arrangements to get the capsules here, have them flown in, I want this to happen fast. You have something you want to say?"

"Part of our objective is to learn from these people. What exactly do we learn when they're sealed up back in those capsules?"

"What do we learn if they're dead? Anyway, Lieutenant, look at them. A couple of frightened kids. What are we really expecting to learn from them anyway?"

"One of those kids knows more about medicine than we have any concept of."

"Right. And he's just a student. Imagine getting to talk to a fully qualified medic."

"What fully qualified medic would that be?"

"Think, Lieutenant. Would you send out a rescue mission without a fully qualified medic on the team?"

"No."

"Have the capsules shipped here, but not the transponders. Keep the transponders far, far away from here. Have a go setting up some of those electromagnetic induction coils. In the mean time I am going to go and sell this plan to our superiors. Because I _am_ taking a major gamble here, and I intend to have their buy in this time."

* * *

Kal, Kristen, Jake and Damon were finalizing plans.

~I think that's all the loose ends.~ Jake concluded.

~Assuming they buy the idea in the first place.~ Damon still remained skeptical.

~That Doctor Vidal wouldn't say anything when he came in, but he's easier to read than that Elaine Sierpinski is. He seems to think they'll agree.~ Kristen reminded them.

~I don't like her, but she wasn't lying. If I had to make a call, I'd say we trust her.~ Jake conceded.

~You think you've got this jaunting thing worked out?~ Kal asked Kristen. ~As soon as they have you sealed up in that capsule thinking you're in stasis like the rest of us, you tune in to Jake and Damon and jaunt out of here.~

~And you're sure they won't notice I'm gone when they try to move the capsules?~

~The capsules are gravitationally shielded, they won't know a thing.~ Kal reassured her.

Jake still had doubts. ~Look, Kristen, are you sure about this? It isn't exactly something we'll be able to practice.~

~Stop acting like my big brother, Jake. I know the plan.~ Kristen was starting to feel her confidence returning.

~And when you get back, you need to eliminate the spare transponder. Better if the rescue team don't get distracted by that, plus it'll just wind them up, there's something in the safety procedures about not splitting up, I think.~ Kal was getting nervous, he was starting to ramble. ~I never really listen to the safety briefing to be honest.~

~No, ur-gisgal,~ Damon retorted snarkily, ~but I'm saying next time, maybe you should.~

* * *

The Lieutenant caught up with Sierpinski as she headed purposefully back to the isolation lab. "I just thought you should know. I've been given orders, to make sure _you _don't have any doubts about following your orders. Not that I think you would, just, telling you how it is."

Sierpinski looked up at him. Somehow the revelation didn't surprise her, it made sense they would want to keep an eye on her. Although the powers that be had accepted her plans for the most part, they had also dictated a raft of conditions and qualifications to them. This was going to be a tough one to juggle.

"Thanks for informing me of that, Lieutenant. And to reassure you, I think I am in general agreement with the orders as they stand right now," she informed him.

The question was how long she stayed in general agreement with the orders. But that was a concern it was not going to be sensible to share with the Lieutenant under the circumstances.

"Capsules and induction coils?" she queried.

"Here and being installed now."

"Right. Lets go try and present them with this legal disclaimer of liability I've been lumbered with."

* * *

"We want to help, we intend to help. We're just trying to make sure there aren't going to be any misunderstandings. We want to fully understand the risks. The risks to you, to us." Sierpinski tried to explain.

"The risk to us is that if we don't do this, we die." Kristen was struggling to get her head around the politics and bureaucracy of what she thought ought to have been a simple decision. She could sense this Sierpinski was equally frustrated by it all, but that didn't help resolve the issue.

"You really think we'd try to interfere with your rescue?" Sierpinski asked.

"You couldn't, I've seen of your technology, you don't have the capability of stopping the rescue ship."

"We could leave you to die, that would mess things up."

"You could. Are you saying you'll do that?"

"There's a risk you'll die anyway. What I'm trying to do is to quantify the danger to us if that happens. You have to see that your people, if they think we were responsible, they could easily destroy the Earth in retaliation."

Kristen was astounded. "Is that what this is about? Why would anyone do that?"

"Revenge. Justice. Anger."

Kristen glanced across at Kal, reassured to that he was just as clueless as she was. She returned her attention to the three humans in the room, feeling completely disconnected from them. She no longer had any doubts, she had way more in common with aliens than she did with humans.

She closed her eyes, desperately trying to think of a way to explain. "Look, if one of you was trapped on an island, an island populated by wild animals, and that person died of starvation, would it be justice to put the wild animals on trial for his death because they failed to help?"

"You're calling us animals?" Sierpinski challenged.

"If you can only think in terms of revenge and anger, then yes, because that's what you are."

"I mentioned justice as well."

"No, you described retribution, not justice. You seem to struggle to understand the difference."

"Wild animals might attack and kill the man on the island for no reason. We wouldn't do that."

"They might for food, for sport. There are always reasons. You might for political convenience, self defense..."

"And if we killed for political convenience, wouldn't you be justified in striking back?"

"Would you strike back against a wild animal that killed for food, when that's just the nature of the beast?"

"We might."

Kristen shook her head. It was a difficult revelation to face up to, but she finally, completely understood what separated her from the humans. "Well we wouldn't. We wouldn't strike back against a wild animal that killed for political convenience either. There's no difference, you don't really understand the consequences of your what you're doing, that's just your nature."

"We can see there are consequences."

"You guess at consequences, but you can't feel them, experience them."

"We can rationalize, we are sitting here talking to each other. We can explain reasons, explain consequences. We can communicate."

Kristen tried hard to stop herself, but the laugh came out anyway. "You call this limited exchange of words communication? I wish I could share with you, show you what communication really is. I can see you're trying to understand. But your minds are..." she gave up trying to find the find the words, "too limited to see... to see what it is you're missing."

She looked up, she could see Sierpinski was starting to grasp, maybe not the argument, but at least the magnitude of the chasm that separated them.

"You're right." Sierpinski admitted. "I want to understand. I'm trying to understand. Is there any way you can... teach us."

Kristen had no choice but to shake her head. "I wish there was. But I'm a language student, not a philosopher. Not a teacher."

Sierpinski remained silent. She was thinking hard.

Kristen tried again. "We're no threat to you. We just want to live."

"I'll arrange the induction coils, we'll give you whatever help you need to survive." Sierpinski answered finally. "You're right, maybe we are animals, but we're animals who want to take the next step, who want to learn to stop acting like animals."

* * *

"The transponders?" Sierpinski questioned the Lieutenant once they were well out of earshot of anyone else.

"Back at the farmhouse, shielded as ordered. I'm confused about our orders here though. We helped the survivors, now you act like we don't want them rescued?"

"The shielding is a temporary measure. The intent is not to stop the rescue, just to have some control over it. We need a little time to set up a proper welcome for them at the farmhouse. A day or two delay there won't result in the end of the world."

The Lieutenant was still not sure. "So our superiors are worried the rescue ship turns up, picks up the capsules, then they exit stage right, and we have nothing. We haven't learned a thing."

"That's about it. Our objective now is to get the rescue team to stop long enough to talk to us. We helped four survivors from the crash. The feeling is that they owe us for that. My orders are to see what we can get in return."

"Isn't that a risk?"

"No." Sierpinski informed him. "Unfortunately it isn't. You don't bluff a hand weaker than the one you're holding, I don't care what planet you're from. The girl was telling the truth. There's no down side, no risk to us at all."

The Lieutenant stared at her disbelievingly. "You don't sound very happy about that."

"I'm not. These are honest and decent people, and my job is now to try and take advantage of them. I hate knowing we can get away with it. Nothing would please me more than being able to go back to my boss when this is all over and say I told you so."

"You want us all wiped out?"

"No. But I want something to happen to make us stop and think for once. You know, I actually respect these people. I really want to try and show them we're better than the animals. This isn't the way to do that"

"But you'll follow orders?" the Lieutenant asked.

Sierpinski smiled, the Lieutenant remained predictable. "You wouldn't hesitate to have me restrained, would you?"

"I would prefer not to have to. This is the opportunity of a lifetime, we can't just let them walk away. "

"You were the one telling us these were aliens in the first place, and I didn't believe you. For that I apologize. For the rest, your heart may be in the right place, Lieutenant, but I think you're wrong about the best way to handle this situation. The ends never justify the means, and I think we're in danger of crossing the line there."

* * *

~It took longer to argue about it.~ Kristen observed cynically.

They were almost done with the preparations. Doctor Vidal and the Lieutenant had helped them set up an area adjacent to the isolation lab where they could power up the capsules, then Kal and Kristen had been left to finish the rest of the job by themselves. Kal was already sealing the second of the capsules.

~There really isn't much more to it than that,~ he told her. ~Induce a coma, activate the stasis field in the capsule, put the patient in the capsule, press the green button. Two or three minutes at most.~

~I remember the green button part. That's where I came in.~ Kristen was hesitant.

~You ready to jaunt? Once I seal you in you'll have only a matter of minutes to jaunt out of there before the air runs out. There is the option of hitting the red button if you absolutely need to get out that way, but if you do, you'll be on your own.~

~I'll be okay. You?~

~I'll be unconscious. If I'm not okay, if the rescue never comes, I'll never know about it,~ he shrugged.

Kristen lay back in the capsule. Kal's cold pragmatism wasn't what she needed to hear. This was not the way she wanted to say goodbye. So much had happened in so little time, now it was over and there were so many things she still wanted to say. Things she'd wanted to do, but she knew that they were both under constant surveillance, doing what she was thinking about wouldn't have been a good idea. She figured it was just as well her thoughts couldn't be monitored. She wasn't ready to let go.

~One of those questions I never got to ask, but, what exactly is the range of telepathy?~

Kal smiled gently. ~Not enough, not for what you're thinking.~

~I guess I like thinking about the impossible,~ she admitted.

Unsurprisingly he knew exactly what she was alluding to. ~Reading your thoughts, turns out I lived a way more sheltered life than I ever realized. I guess I learned something.~

Kristen tried not to blush.

~Green button,~ he whispered. The capsule closed.

Kristen looked up. She couldn't see him any more, but she could still sense him, sense him climbing into the last of the capsules. He was feeling, feeling there was something missing. There was an emptiness there. In all the time she'd know him, the whole two days, he'd been focussed, upset, confused, every emotion she could imagine, but he hadn't once had any feeling about her. Until now. Now she was gone, now it was all over, he'd finally realized he was going to miss her.

She kept watching until she sensed his mind fading, fading in unconsciousness. Until there was nothing left keeping her there.

~Jake?~ she called, and then jaunted.

* * *

"Doctor?" Elaine Sierpinski paused as she passed the observation room overlooking the now empty isolation area. She was surprised to see Doctor Vidal clearing out his desk. Not that he'd exactly had much there in the way of personal stuff there to start with.

"Looks like my job is done. Wish I knew what exactly it was I'd done, but I think they'll live. Anyway, I'm being shipped out. On a need to know basis, it seems I no longer need to know."

"Well, that's probably the right decision. Odd though, I don't seem to recall being consulted about it."

The Doctor understood the implied meaning. "What just happened here, Ms Sierpinski? Did we just have the single greatest opportunity in the history of humanity bestowed upon us, only for us to screw the whole thing up through our petty politics and bureaucracy? Was this weekend real?"

"What do you want me to say?"

"That this was a training exercise and that our failure is going to result in a thorough policy review."

Sierpinski made no effort to contain her cynicism. "Sorry Doctor. This was the real deal. And I think our failure is going to proclaim to the universe that we're a bunch of complete assholes."

"Yes, well, good luck with that," Doctor Vidal retorted dismissively. "You know what, though? I thought you were an asshole, you proved me wrong. And I'm not trying to tell you your job here, but if I were you, if I still had that one last chance to break the rules, I'd use it to try and convince the aliens that we're not a lost cause. You could still do that much. Please let me walk away from this thinking there's still some hope for humanity."

"Maybe, Doctor," Sierpinski contemplated. "But I'll have to convince myself of that first."

* * *

"Problems?" John asked as he finally completed the coupling of the energy packs to the modified relay beacon. The rain had eased off, but it was still turning out to be muddy work.

Carol rechecked her readings. "I just did a periodic check, three transponder signals aren't showing any more."

"Dead?"

"Completely dead. No readings at all."

"Only someone telepathic could deactivate or set them to destruct. That isn't likely." Elizabeth pointed out.

"Shielded then?"

Elizabeth wasn't convinced. "How would they know how to shield them?"

"Well, thankfully that's one mystery that doesn't much matter now. The transmitter is ready to go. As long as they're in range, they'll be able to make contact."

Carol felt an enormous sense of relief. "How long?"

"I don't know exactly. The power has to build up. Ten or fifteen minutes at most."

"What if they don't answer?" Elizabeth asked.

"Why on earth wouldn't they answer?..." He cut himself short. They wouldn't answer if they were unconscious or dead, and John could see there was absolutely no value in pointing that out. This was their only remaining hope, it had to work.

"And now we wait." Carol declared, sitting herself down on a nearby wet rock.


	5. Episode 4

**Someone Doesn't Want Them Rescued**

* * *

Kristen collapsed into the back seat of the car, water still dripping down her face, trying to catch their breath. She was torn between feelings of triumph, of uncertainty, and of loss.

"That shit you came up with," Jake murmured quietly, "about the wild animals, that was inspired. I had her figured as too cynical to go for anything like that. But you read her right, you did good."

Kristen tried not to feel big headed, and failed. Jake wasn't in the habit of handing out undeserved compliments. "I've been watching, taking notes, learning from a pro."

"From this loser? Sodding miracle you survived." Damon joked.

Kristen managed a smile. In a single day the insecurity had fallen away, she didn't feel like an outsider any more. But the comfort was bittersweet. "We'll never know whether Kal makes it or not, will we?"

"Probably not," Jake conceded gently. "But we gave him the best chance he could have. That's got to count for something."

"So what happens now, girls? We go home, pretend we had a really cool weekend waterskiing? Keep watching the skies for flying saucers?"

Jake hesitated a moment. "Sounds like a plan. But there's one last job to finish first. We keep our promise to Kal, we have to destroy that last transponders. No loose ends, nothing left to be able to prove any of them were ever here."

"Are we sure we should be doing this?" Damon asked uncertainly.

"You okay?" Kristen asked, sensing Damon was far from convinced Jake was doing the right thing.

"There's a galaxy of people like us out there in outer space, and we're letting go, destroying our only link to it. I mean, I know that's what we said we would do. Kal would be in such deep shit if they ever found out he'd helped us the way he did. But it just feels like we're isolating ourselves, we shouldn't have to be alone like this," he tried to explain his doubts.

Jake was pragmatic. "You're right, but, we made a promise. I made a promise. If I make a promise I keep it. No matter what. Even if it hurts me to know what I'm doing."

"That's why we trust you, dude," Damon reluctantly accepted the argument.

"Anyway, you know what, it's enough to know that we aren't alone. There are telepaths like us on other worlds, we're not freaks, we're an inevitable consequence of evolution."

Kristen nodded. "And we know that we've barely scratched the surface in understanding the extent of what we're capable of."

"And we know that the owls are not what they seem," Damon added.

Jake and Kristen stared blankly at him.

Damon tried to defend himself. "Dude, there was a time your mind got scrambled by drugs, you had this strange vision about owls. Weird shit vision, I didn't understand any of it. But Kal's fear of owls, that can't be a coincidence."

"You taking the piss?" Jake asked, sounding worried that for once he couldn't tell.

"No."

"Just, you need to watch, you're sounding like you've caught religion or something."

"Just telling you what I think, dude."

"Well, it's scary. You're being scary. Stop it."

"They were your visions Ges-du, dude."

"Right. Blame me." Jake stared back uncomfortably.

Kristen's nerve broke, this was crossing the line into weird even for them. "Er, guys, can we back off now. You're both creeping me out here."

"Sorry." Jake apologized.

"We try not to be creepy, honestly," Damon added. "Just happens sometimes."

Jake tried to change the subject. "So. Who wants to volunteer to go hiking in the rain back to where where the transponder was hidden. Kristen?"

"Me? It's pissing it down out there. I just risked my butt to save Kal. Think I deserve a right to pass on this one."

Jake was practical, "no one else knows exactly where it's hidden."

"But we're all telepathic, so I can show you when you get there."

"She has a point." Damon pointed out.

"Okay, Damon, ur-gisgal."

Kristen caught an undertone in the insult she hadn't been expecting. "Okay, I thought 'ur-gisgal' meant 'dude'. I just worked out it doesn't."

Damon grinned mischievously, then switched moods abruptly to attack Jake. "Don't go pleading that bad leg on me. You managed the hike yesterday well enough."

"You or me then. I'll toss you for it."

* * *

John stared disparagingly at Carol who seemed unhelpfully content to continue to sit waiting in the cold and wet. "Well, I don't know about you two," John brushed the dirt off of his hands, "But I intend to wait somewhere dry, somewhere warm, and somewhere I can be sipping a hot cup of tea.

Elizabeth nodded thankfully and stood up to join him, and moments later all three of them were back in the sanctuary of Chris's apartment.

"Tea?" John asked expectantly.

Chris frowned. "Well, great to know I'm still useful for _something_," he answered, trying not to sound as frustrated as he felt.

* * *

Damon was trudging through the mud unhappily. ~How did I draw the short straw? How do I always draw the short-straw Ges-du? My luck should not be consistently this bad, are you doing some dodgy telekinetic trick with the coin?~

~You're exploiting an imperative as an expletive adjective, I'm not sure that's grammatically correct for alien.~ Kristen observed pedantically from the dry and warm sanctuary of Jake's car.

Jake was less offended by the grammar. ~You accusing me of something?~

~Yes.~

~Well Ges-dug-usu. And that is grammatically correct.~ Jake responded.

* * *

"Shouldn't we have picked something up by now?" Elizabeth was finding the wait intractable.

"The power will be building up, as it does the range will increase. We just have to be patient," John tried to reassure her. He glanced at his watch. Unfortunately she was right, it was taking too long. Why the hell hadn't they heard anything?

John sipped nervously on his tea.

* * *

Damon reached down, the transponder was now partly submerged in the dirt. It was cold, wet, and messy.

He was about to grab it when he felt a sensation of pain, not prolonged, not intense, just uncomfortable. There and gone. A sensation he recognized.

~You two getting this?~

~Getting something.~ Jake confirmed.

~The rescue ship, it has to be,~ Kristen chipped in, tears of joy threatening to overwhelm her. ~Should we respond?~

Jake paused for a moment thinking. ~They're here in plenty time, Kal and the others are going to be fine. The sooner you can get rid of the transponder the better, there's nothing much more we can do to help.~

~So we just ignore it then, let them get on with the rescue without us,~ Damon agreed, although without much enthusiasm.

~How easy is it going to be to ignore something like that?~ Kristen asked.

~Three double vodkas should do the trick. And after what we just went through, we deserve it.~

Damon smiled, Jake was reassuringly serious. He reached and grabbed the transponder, trying to remember what Kal had said about deactivating it. He was a little nervous about prematurely triggering the self destruct mechanism in the thing.

* * *

"That's odd. I just detected movement, the fourth beacon." Carol stared at the readings with a puzzled look on her face.

Chris was confused. "I thought all four of the survivors were in the hands of the authorities?"

"It could be someone out hiking just randomly found the transponder," Elizabeth suggested.

John agreed. "One of us should go retrieve it, there's no point in leaving it out there now and we don't want it falling into the hands of the saps."

"One of us?" Elizabeth asked.

John realized that the two of them were staring at him. "Alright, I'll go and retrieve it. In the rain."

His apparent lack of enthusiasm disguised an intense desire to get away. He was getting more and more worried by the lack of any response to the distress beacon. The signal was at full power, it was designed to be so irritating that no telepath could ignore it, the response should have been instant. Arguing for patience was little more than an act of denial. It was over, they'd failed, and it was getting harder and harder for John to shield his despair from the others. He needed some distance.

Not that running away would help, but it might give him time to try and work out how he was going to pick up the pieces. Their failure had cost four lives. Dealing with that in the days ahead was going to be hell.

* * *

Damon was distracted, out of the corner of his eye he could see a form taking shape nearby. He recognized the yellow fuzziness in the transition that he associated with jaunting. Only he wasn't visualizing, so there was no way it could be Jake or Kristen. He was pretty sure the chances of it being Misako were even more remote.

Damon slowly turned to look. No space suit, didn't look much like an alien. Although, that was a tough call given that he knew aliens could look pretty much like anybody else.

The figure looked a refugee from the 1970s.

Damon stared, and the guy stared back at him in almost as much disbelief as Damon was feeling.

~Guys, got a heads up for you, got some seriously weird shit happening here,~ Damon sent to Jake and Kristen.

~You need help? I can be there...~ Jake responded instantly.

~No, hold back. Do the visualizing thing, though, I might need to get of here in a hurry. I don't know.~

Damon and John continued to stare blankly at each other.

~That's one of the boys we passed climbing Wansfell Pike yesterday.~ Elizabeth sounded incredulous as she materialized to find out why John wasn't answering, why he'd cut this thoughts off so abruptly.

Damon twisted around to see a second figure walking towards him. He took a nervous step back, and tried to hook into the images he was getting from Jake of the car park in Ambleside.

"That object, it belongs to one of... one of four survivors from a crash. An airplane." John tried to explain.

Damon could sense that the guy was lying, he knew it wasn't an airplane. But there was no deception intended, the guy just didn't think anyone would believe the truth. Damon took a gamble and corrected him. "It was an interplanetary passenger shuttle. There were three survivors. Ra-dalhamun died before the crash, from gamma radiation exposure."

"You helped them?" Carol asked.

Damon took a second step back. He hadn't seen her arrive. He was now surrounded on three sides. He kept talking, trying to evaluate his options. This wasn't exactly the rescue team he was expecting, but instinctively he knew that was what these people had to be. "They needed help, we helped. You got a problem with that?"

"Who _are_ you?" John asked.

"Who the hell are _you_?" Damon fired back, feeling more and more uncertain.

"It's Damon Jackson." Carol told them, studying him carefully. "He looks nothing like the photograph of him that was in the newspapers. Hair's completely different, that's why I didn't recognize him yesterday when we were climbing."

Damon started to freak out. These people knew who he was, no way would an alien rescue team know that. He carefully focussed his mind on the empty car park that Jake could see out of the car window. Four seconds and he could be there.

"Look, just back off. So what if I am Damon Jackson? What the hell does it matter to you?"

John looked across at Carol then back at Damon. He raised his hands slowly, gesturing as if surrendering. He could obviously sense Damon was as jumpy as hell and liable to jaunt out of there at any moment, and he wasn't all that confident they would be able to follow. But why the hell did that matter to him? Damon didn't get it, these people weren't behaving like any rescue team he'd expected.

"We are the rescue team," John explained gently, acknowledging Damon's doubts. "We're responding to the relay beacon. You're telepathic, look into my thoughts and you'll see I'm telling the truth."

Damon was conflicted, he sensed truth but remained unconvinced. Something still didn't add up. "So if you're the rescue team, why are you more interested in me than you are in Kal and the others? That's messed up, isn't it?" Damon challenged them.

"We need to know where they are in order to rescue them, and right now you're the only link we have to finding them." Elizabeth explained.

Damon looked across at her, still not daring to take his eyes off the others. "You've got the transponders haven't you?"

"The only transponder we're getting a signal from is that one you're holding," Carol answered. "Check if you don't believe us."

Damon checked, there were no other signals. Something really was wrong. Again they were telling the truth, but caution had him challenge them one last time. "You're speaking human, not alien."

"We're not human." Elizabeth answered.

"No?" Damon sounded unsure.

"No more than you are." Carol spoke gently.

Damon fell silent.

"Can we at least sit down and discuss this rationally?" John was getting impatient.

"And preferably somewhere out of the rain." Carol requested, smiling sweetly.

* * *

~Guys, I'm coming back. I have three people jaunting in with me.~

~Aliens?~ Jake asked, kind of aware it was a stupid question. It had to be aliens.

~I don't think so,~ the response came back from Damon.

Jake exchanged glances with Kristen. What the hell was going on here?

~Guys, exchange glances later. I need you to focus on where I'm jaunting to.~

~Sorry right.~

* * *

Jake and Kristen exited the car and ran across the car park to the picnic area. It was still cold and damp, but the table was covered over and out of the rain at least. The three odd characters with Damon were completely not what Jake had been expecting, they were old.

~They have pensioners in outer space?~ he smirked.

~Er, Jake, you might want to think that a little more quietly.~ Damon tried to nudge him.

~Why? Shit, they have telepathic pensioners in outer space?~

John disapproved coldly. "Typical. Youth of today have no respect. And for your information, I'm not from outer space, I'm from North London. Now, If you've quite finished we have very little time, and a great deal to talk about."

Jake stared suspiciously at John, he didn't appreciate being bossed around like that.

Elizabeth tried to counter the frosty stand off with a smile. "I'm so pleased we get to meet you. I'm Elizabeth," she held out her hand.

Jake wasn't exactly sure what to do. All he could sense from her was politeness, which didn't help much. Old people had all these rules of social etiquette that completely baffled Jake, he desperately tried to remember what they did in period movies. He bowed disarmingly and kissed Elizabeth's hand.

Damon sniggered. "That's 1870s, dude, this lot are 1970s."

Carol attempted to complete the introductions but was interrupted by John. "We're wasting time," he pointed out impatiently.

"Right," Jake agreed. "So how about you tell us who the hell you are? If you're from North London then what the hell are you doing chasing after crashed aliens? And if you're the rescue team then what the hell are you doing talking to us? Isn't this supposed to be a closed world?"

"Look, I know what happened to you, I realize you have every reason to be suspicious, but we're here to help. Just hear us out. This planet was our home, fifteen years ago we were forced to evacuate. As for who we are, we're telepaths, the same as you. We called ourselves The Tomorrow People."

"And here was me, thought we were being original," Damon frowned.

Jake shook his head. "No offense, but, well, you seem a bit old."

"I am sure to you everyone who is over the age of twenty must seem ancient, but can we have a little less of the 'old' please." John sounded frustrated.

"What happened?" Jake persisted.

Carol tried to explain. "It's a prion based infection, we don't know how or where it started, but the ecosystem of this planet is now totally contaminated."

"Can you cure it?" Kristen jumped in.

Elizabeth shook her head. "The only way to help Kal and the others is to get them off this planet, and fast. Decontaminate them and in time they'll recover naturally. But there is no cure as such."

"Meaning you're here on borrowed time as well." Damon noted.

"About five or six hours left." Elizabeth confirmed.

"What does it do?" Damon asked.

"It's a protein," Elizabeth continued. "It gets into your system through the food chain and interacts with receptors in the brain related to telepathic and telekinetic abilities converting the proteins related to those activities into a form that's poisonous."

"Encephalopathy?" Damon asked, his biology homework coming back to haunt him.

"Yes." Carol answered. "But specific to telepathic function, which is why it has no effect on the saps."

"The what?" Kristen was struggling to keep up with the barrage of information..

"Saps. What we call Homo sapiens." Elizabeth explained.

"Makes sense," Damon observed wistfully.

Jake smirked, "A lot more polite than what we call them."

"Why doesn't that surprise me." John observed.

Jake gave him a dirty look. "You sound exactly like my mother."

"A little less of your sarcasm, young man."

Kristen ignored the tension between John and Jake. "So why haven't we been infected?"

Elizabeth shrugged. "We have no idea, we had no idea you even existed. A few of us must have had some kind of immunity, but we didn't know about that. We evacuated everyone, even children who hadn't broken out yet. Once we were gone, Tomorrow People born without that immunity factor wouldn't have lived to be more than a couple of days old. Natural selection in action."

Carol took up the explanation. "Those who did have the immunity would grow up normally, No one would know until fifteen years later, when the first of the telepaths born after the evacuation start to break out. And that's you."Kristen was puzzled. "All those people you evacuated, they vanished and no one noticed?"

Carol smiled a slightly melancholy smile. "There were less than a thousand of us world wide. Twice as many people as that die every single day in this country."

"There was a statistical blip in the number of deaths recorded in 1998, but it was sufficiently within the margin of error to be dismissed as non-significant." Elizabeth clarified.

"So you're like us, okay. But what do you want? Family reunion? Group hug? What?" Jake interrupted. The explanations were fine, but he could sense that behind it all John had some unspoken agenda.

"Our first priority is to get the survivors from the crash transferred up to a rescue ship that is currently hiding in orbit." Carol answered.

John broke his silence. "If we can even find them now we've lost the signals from the transponders."

"What, and you're blaming us for that?" Jake was immediately defensive.

"No." Carol jumped in to try and smooth over ruffled feelings. John and Jake were clearly rubbing each other up the wrong way.

"Then we planned to spend what time we had left seeing what we could do to help you out," John tried to sound supportive, unfortunately it came across to Jake as being more than a little patronizing.

Jake controlled his frustration, kept his voice steady. "We're doing very well on our own thank you very much," he noted dismissively.

"No we aren't. We're scraping through every day by the skin of our teeth." Damon had no time for the attempted deception.

~Shut up, will you, we don't want him knowing that.~ Jake started angrily.

Damon shook his head. ~They're not stupid, Jake, they already know.~

"I've seen what you can do, and I'm not all that impressed. Frankly if you plan to survive you are going to have to buck your ideas up," John gave up trying to be diplomatic.

Jake shook his head. "I knew this part was coming. Bloody adults always feel like they have to give advice."

John remained cool and composed. "That's because bloody kids always think they know everything when they don't. You've unlocked only a fraction of what you're capable of. You are the future of this world, but you need to put the brakes on the arrogance and embrace some humility. You have a lot still to learn. And, I'll make this blunt, right now you are too stupid and too juvenile to have much chance of surviving the dangers that lie ahead. You need to grow up, and fast."

"Come on, that is totally unfair." Jake wasn't having it.

"Maybe it is. But you're stuck with it. You have a responsibility to the future whether you like it or not. That is what being Tomorrow People is all about."

"Responsibility to the future, like you did? Running away? Leaving us to fend for ourselves? Great example," Jake started to raise his voice.

"Alright, both of you, enough." Carol could sense tempers frayed on both sides. She found herself looking at Damon for support.

"Jake, we can argue this after Kal is safely off the planet."

"You're right." Jake conceded, but the concession was clearly addressed at Damon alone.

"You'll help us then?" John asked, managing to sound unemotional and businesslike.

"That's what we do." Jake answered curtly. It wasn't conciliatory, it wasn't apologetic. It was stated as a simple fact.

* * *

Carol and Elizabeth seemed to be actively conspiring to keep John and Jake apart, and as small and cramped as things were at Chris's nursing home, that wasn't turning out to be such an easy task. Thankfully the urgency of the challenge that faced them left them little time for socializing.

John explained the plan. "Alright, we're going to start at the farmhouse, the last known location of the three transponders. We know the capsules have been moved out, we know they've been moved to a military base, but we also know it can't be all that far away, they'd have kept the distances to a minimum. Our problem is that this base doesn't seem to show up on any of the satellite maps we have of the area. It looks like the government in an unfortunate show of competence has wiped the place off the internet. We have a little over five hours left, time is not on our side. This is a reconnaissance mission, we get in, we look around, find out what we can, then we get out. We can't afford to be spotted, we don't have the resources for a full on confrontation. This is crucial, the only chance we're going to have of getting Kal and the others away will be if we keep the element of surprise on our side. Now one of us is going to have to stay behind here..."

"Why does someone have to stay behind?" Jake interrupted. "Why reduce our effectiveness? It buys us nothing."

Carol moved quickly to explain. "We always leave someone behind, that's standard procedure, in case something happens to the rest of us."

"I suggest Kristen stays," John continued. "She has the least experience jaunting and no experience jaunting long distances with the belts."

Jake could sense Kristen was particularly frustrated with the idea, and he could see why. "I suggest not," he retorted bluntly. "Carol is right, if anything happens, we'll need backup, and Kristen can't be the backup because as John has so helpfully pointed out, she has no experience jaunting long distance without assistance."

The logic was flawless, and John was not happy with it at all. He reluctantly nominated Carol to stay behind instead, leaving Carol furious with herself for having defended the requirement in the first place.

John, however, had been much more receptive to Kristen's suggestion they all go in dressed in environment suits. It would help them maintain the illusion they were all alien in the event anything did go wrong, and John agreed absolutely that preserving the anonymity of Jake, Kristen and Damon was a critical consideration.

Jake frowned. He was sure that if he'd been the one to suggest it then John would have been a lot less agreeable. There was no doubt about it, John was treating him differently to the others. Jake tried to let go of the frustration and focus on the mission.

* * *

"Does John have a problem with me? I mean, no, I can see he has a problem with me, what I mean is, what the hell is his problem?" Jake was helping Carol clear more space in the barn so they could jaunt back there with the survivors if necessary.

Carol was trying to be diplomatic, something she was generally good at, but when it came to John she was a little too familiar with his flaws to be completely objective. "He doesn't like it when arrogant youngsters like you tell him he's wrong. Especially on those occasions when he_ is_ wrong. And I'm not saying you shouldn't point that out, but you could be more polite about it. And as for your language, Jake, well, call me an old fuddy duddy if you like, but I don't much appreciate that either."

"Sorry," Jake apologized. "I don't swear around my parents, but, my grandfather, he swore like a sailor. Which, might be because he was a sailor. He taught me most of the swear words I know. Except the alien ones. He didn't know any of those. You just remind me more of his generation."

Carol smiled, she couldn't help but like Jake, even if he could be a little arrogant at times. "I was such an idealist when I was your age. Still am I think, try to be anyway. But you're right, old age pensioners is what we are these days. And John is a grumpy old man, but he's been that as long as I've know him. Even when he was your age. I still like him though. You just have to have a little patience with him."

"So you don't mind having to stay behind?"

"Well, yes, I do mind. There was always someone got left behind, usually it was Kenny, and I always felt sorry for him. But John is just trying to be protective, protective of you as well. We didn't abandon you, we didn't know you existed. We were all completely shocked to get back here and find out how wrong we'd been."

"You were shocked?"

"Jake, I don't think you grasp how precious the three of you are to us. We thought we'd failed completely, all our dreams and hopes for the future were finished. Now it's a big unknown again, but that's hopeful. The unknown doesn't have to be bad."

"Funny, I like the unknown. It's having plans, that's what I'm afraid of."

Carol caught the undertone to his words. "You're afraid of commitment?"

"That as well," he sniggered, then got more serious. "How do you do commitment when life is this unpredictable? I mean, not that I ever met anyone I would commit myself to anyway, I just, never really found humans all that, you know..."

"I married an alien. I suppose I do know."

"Right." Jake found himself intrigued, it was the first time he'd ever met anyone who actually did have a clue how he felt. "You have kids?"

"No. There are aliens like Kal, and then there are real aliens. The guy I married was, well, too alien for kids to be an option."

"But you're okay with that." Jake could sense her contentment there. "Me, it's kind of stupid, I would, but then..."

Carol smiled wryly, she had a feeling she was talking to the real Jake, a Jake not many people ever got to see. Not even Damon. "But then you're afraid."

"I don't know. Fear of people relying on me, because I don't know that I can always be there for them."

"You know, Jake, you're not half as irresponsible as you seem to want people to think."

* * *

John was in the woods that backed onto the car park in Ambleside, trying unsuccessfully to teach Damon how to program the belts. Damon had pretty quickly picked up the trick of jaunting to somewhere the belts had been pre-programmed for, but actually programming a setting himself was turning out to be way more complex.

John was being surprisingly patient. "Programming belts is a rare art. Most of us never need to know how to do it, we get used to having them pre-programmed for us by computers. It's been pretty difficult coming back here without the usual support mechanisms around."

Damon noted the hesitance in the admission. "What's it like up there in outer space, is life easier? Better"

"Yes. But, more boring maybe. There were things about living in London I missed at first, but you adjust. I don't think I would want to come back here now, I've gotten more used to life out there than I realized. And I don't miss the stress of being the only hope for the future of humanity."

"Yeah," Damon sneered cheerfully, "we're kind of stuck with that now."

"You'll adjust, adapt, just like we all did."

"Does it meant giving up any chance of leading a normal life?"

"I paid that price, when your survival is in the balance you have to. Taking your responsibility lightly isn't an option, that's something your friend Jake doesn't seem to get."

"He avoids responsibility sometimes, but he doesn't take it lightly. He isn't ready to give up having a life either, he just doesn't accept that's a trade off he has to make. He figures he can do both, and you know, somehow he always manages to get away with stuff like that."

"What about you?"

Damon thought momentarily of decisions he'd made in his life. "I've given up hope of leading a normal life for now, but certainly not forever. It won't always be like this."

John stared at Damon and contemplated his own situation. "My advice to you, for what it's worth, don't sell out today for the hope of a better tomorrow. By all means work for a better tomorrow, that's a noble thing, but don't forget to live while you do it. Don't make my mistake."

"Worried you'll get us all killed on this mission? I take it that's the real reason you wanted Kristen left behind."

"That's part of it," John confessed.

"And the rest of it is that you have doubts whether we're responsible enough for the job."

"I think you might be just a little too perceptive for your own good, you know that?"

"I've been accused of worse, mostly by Jake," Damon conceded.

John was curious. "You put up with a lot from him."

"And I'd put up with a lot more. There was a moment in my life where I was totally, totally alone. Lost. Jake was there for me, never gave up on me. You know, as far as I'm concerned, he can call me anything the hell he wants."

* * *

"Now, understand, this is just first aid I'm showing you. I'm not a qualified medic." Elizabeth explained. She was sat with Kristen in the kitchen of Chris's apartment.

Kristen was happy to learn anything. "First aid saved my life after I fell off that building, I want whatever you can teach me."

"Whatever Kal might have told you, what he did after you fell off the building was a lot more than first aid. That would have stretched the abilities of a lot of professional medics, for an unqualified med student he took a significant risk."

"I'd have died."

"He made a judgment call, he broke the rules. I read his file, he's forever pushing the rules. In the long term they think that's one reason he has the potential to be a great medic, if he can just grow up a little first. I think it was unhelpful of him to make out that saving your life was just first aid, though."

Kristen caught on to the undercurrent in Elizabeth's words. "And that's a polite way of reminding me I was getting too close to be objective, and I need to let go."

"You already worked that out for yourself, you just haven't finished the letting go part. I thought the encouragement might help."

Kristen grinned. "So, fractures I get. Simple broken bones, I think I could handle. It isn't that easy to practice this kind of stuff, is it?"

"One of the exercises they use at med school, they get you to crack an egg, then try putting it back together again. Like Humpty Dumpty. And I'm serious."

"You know, you make a great teacher."

"Used to be a teacher once, back when we all still lived here on Earth. I do more what you would call social work now."

"You miss the teaching?"

"No. It's very easy in life to spend all your time regretting what you've lost, lose focus on what you've got. I enjoy doing social work."

"Me, I have no clue what I want to do with my future. Translator, international relations or something like that I suppose, I love languages. What made you give up teaching?"

"Left Earth, had to build a whole new life for myself. But that's not a bad thing. It's possible to get too comfortable, to be afraid of moving out of your comfort zone. It took the end of the world to kick me. What happened, really wasn't nice. And not everyone survived, I lost some good friends. Still don't know what happened to Stephen. But, if that hadn't happened I wouldn't be where I am right now. I don't know. Getting a bit philosophical on you."

"I kind of like that. Me, I had an easy life, too easy. Finding out I was one of the Tomorrow People, that's shaken things up. I wasn't sure how I was ever going to fit in. That's changed now. It's taken a crashed alien flying saucer to make me realize. It isn't about fitting in, it's about hanging on for the ride."

* * *

They were almost ready to go, or at least as ready as it was possible to get in the short time that they had. Jake and Damon were now finishing their final preparations in Chris's bedroom, trying on the environment suits.

"What are you looking at us like that for?" Jake frowned.

"You look like a couple of complete 'nanas" Chris confessed.

"They're bloody uncomfortable is what they are,"

Damon retorted. "And I'm overheating. The temperature controls aren't screwed up on this thing are they?"

"Don't think so, I got the same problem." Jake admitted.

Chris was laughing. Jake glared at him. "Watch it, grandpa, you'll give yourself another stroke."

Chris laughed even harder, he was getting to love how Jake didn't back off and treat him like an invalid.

"You want to tell us what you're laughing at?" Damon asked.

"Kids," Chris tried to keep a straight face long enough to answer, "let me ask you something. What you wearing underneath those environment suits?"

"T-shirt and boxers, why?" Damon stared, unable to see the humor in that."

"They don't function properly if you wear anything underneath. Come on, even I know that."

"You having us on?" Jake stared into Chris's eyes. He could see Chris was having a laugh about something, but the emotion clouded the detail of what exactly it was he found funny.

"Seriously, I'm not. Try it."

Jake looked across at Damon, then back at Chris. Then back at Damon. They both shrugged and headed for the bathroom. Behind them they heard Chris erupt into more laughter.

Damon closed the door, and they stood there looking at each other. "Alright then, you believe him, you go first," Damon suggested.

Jake pulled out a coin. "How about we toss for it?"

"Ges-dug-usu," Damon held his ground.

"Alright, I'll bloody go first." Jake conceded and started to pull his environment suit off.

* * *

Everyone had assembled in the barn out behind Chris's apartment. It was time.

"We ready?" John asked.

There were nods all round.

"Ready for anything now we got the secret of these environment suits figured." Damon whispered aside.

John disregarded the sniggers from Jake. "I'll jaunt in using the belt. If it's all clear, I'll bring the rest of you in visually. Understood?"

There were more nods.

"Elizabeth?"

"There's no one around there that I can sense, we're clear to go." Elizabeth replied.

"Right. Lets do this. Stay in touch." John jaunted.

"We'll be waiting for you right here." Chris reassured them, there wasn't anything more he could do at this point. "Good luck."

Carol nodded her agreement.

Seconds later Elizabeth, Jake, Damon and Kristen had joined John in the garage out at the farm.

Most of the equipment brought in by the soldiers had been removed and some attempt had been made to return the place to it's previous state. The two tractors from outside had been moved back in where they belonged and now took up most of the space in there.

Kristen wandered across and peered out the small, grimy window. She quickly took a step back again, there were soldiers out there in the distance. ~At least we know they still have some presence here,~ she informed the others. ~That has to be a good sign.~

Meanwhile John had already spotted the items of interest on a trestle table against the wall.Elizabeth walked over and inspected the induction coils. ~They moved the capsules out, but the transponders are all still here, shielded. They've done it deliberately.~~Someone obviously doesn't want them rescued.~ John declared bluntly.

"Shit." Kristen wasn't happy. "And we were the idiots who told them how to shield the transponders."

John glared angrily at the shielded transponders. His infuriation was entirely directed at the Earth authorities, but that didn't make Kristen feel any better.

She turned away, frustrated, almost sobbing. ~We thought we were helping.~

Jake shook his head, he couldn't allow Kristen to shoulder the blame. ~It's okay, Kristen. I made the call, I said we should trust her. It's my fault, mine alone.~

~Your fault?~ John turned on him.

~That woman, that Sierpinski, she said she would help. I don't get it, I saw her mind, I could see she wasn't lying. I don't understand how it happened, but I made a mistake.~ Jake admitted.

~Telepathy can't tell you whether you can trust someone. Just because someone tells the truth, I'm sorry. Even bad people tell the truth sometimes.~ Elizabeth gently tried to explained.

John remained silent. If the saps were intentionally keeping the survivors hidden then their chances of rescuing them in the little time they had left were going to be close to zero. He had no clue what to do next.

Jake closed his eyes. John might have refused to voice his frustration, but Jake could still sense it. ~So you're right,~ he muttered angrily. ~I'm a complete waste of scrote, I totally screwed things up for everyone. Happy now?~

* * *

**Just Like Old Timers**

* * *

John and Jake had sat there for several minutes glaring at each other. Elizabeth had called Carol who had quickly jaunted in to help act as a buffer between the two of them, but she wasn't needed, the atmosphere was more one of of despondency than anger.

"How long do we have left?" Kristen asked, although she wasn't sure she wanted to hear the answer.

"Four hours, thirty-seven minutes." Elizabeth confirmed.

Carol shook her head helplessly. "They could be anywhere."

"Someone knows. Someone in the chain of command has to know. All we have to work out is the right way to ask," Jake argued obstinately, still fighting the guilt of feeling like he was half responsible for getting them into this mess.

John looked at him suspiciously. "I'm sure they do, but we don't have the resources for a confrontation."

"Well I'm sorry, but I think we're a little beyond worrying about that now."

"You're not suggesting what I think you're suggesting?"

"Yes, actually I am. What's your problem?"

"And how exactly do you propose to go get them to listen?"

Jake tried to control his exasperation. "I don't know. Not yet, anyway."

Carol immediately latched onto the possibility. "It has to be worth a try, right now anything has to be worth a try."

John hesitated, he didn't exactly like what Jake was suggesting, but he didn't want to demoralize Carol any further. "Alright, alright. It's as good an idea as any right now. But lets not act in haste."

Jake wasn't ready to accept the compromise. "No, acting in haste is exactly what we need is to do. Instead of sitting here arguing the toss while time's rapidly running out."

"We need to plan this, we don't need you rushing in half cocked and making things worse again."

"Wait for all your plans to be in place, wait for a the perfect moment to come along, and you'll die of old age waiting. Sometimes you need to screw the plan. Sometimes you just need balls." Jake slipped out the door and walked off towards the soldiers Kristen had seen earlier.

John stared furiously after him, but it was too late to pull Jake back, the soldiers had already seen him. "Is Jake always this bloody minded?" John asked, sounding exasperated.

"Yeah," Damon conceded. "You get used to it."

* * *

Jake had contemplated jaunting directly into the middle of the checkpoint, in full view of everyone, for once he wanted to draw attention to himself. But if the soldiers were a little bit jumpy then surprising them like that might just get him shot again, which would be a bugger given he'd only just recovered from the last time that had happened. He was going to have to attract attention in a more conventional way, at least to start with.

"Menzen, zae-nu-igi-sig," Jake shouted. He didn't know enough alien to be able to make much sense, but that didn't matter, the soldiers he was walking towards understood even less.

It was a tough job to stay balanced. He was walking slowly, but without his walking stick it was proving to be harder than he had anticipated. He was determined not to feel sorry for himself. He thought about Chris, there was a guy in far worse shape, and there was a guy who had no concept of feeling sorry for himself.

Trashed knee, which had happened because on that occasion he'd rushed in without a clue of what he was doing. Maybe there was a lesson there. A lesson, he was acutely aware that he was ignoring right now, charging off on his own with even less clue what he was doing.

"Hello there, sir. This is a restricted area, we're investigating possible radioactive contamination." One of the soldiers had seen him.

"Gae menzen sugu-Ges-sur," Jake replied, kind of hoping that they couldn't understand a word he was saying. The only alien phrases he knew were the really offensive ones.

"Sir, you need to leave this area. It might not be safe. We're going to have to escort you out of here immediately."

"Zae Gae Ges zig, lu sir dili."

Jake was close enough to be able to hear the voice of the soldier who was calling in the incident back to base.

"Reporting a civilian in the exclusion zone, barely more than a kid. Sounds like a foreigner, doesn't speak English. No, no clue how he got past the roadblocks. Odd thing about him, he's wearing what looks like a radiation suit."

Jake could sense puzzlement. The soldier had gone silent. No orders appeared to be forthcoming. Jake smiled. He'd got someone somewhere spooked.

"Kal-umun." He stared at the soldier. He had the guy's attention, now it was time to up the ante. "Nieb-gisgal, Gulal-ursan," he paused theatrically. "There is no contamination here. Radioactive levels are within normal tolerances. It is safe. The four survivors were last detected in this vicinity. I am not leaving."

"Sorry, but that's not an option. Orders are to escort you out of the area."

"You will not." Jake stated blankly, arrogantly. He could sense several soldiers surrounding him slowly. ~Damon, show me an exit.~

The soldiers remained silent. Jake continued, "the four survivors will be recovered. You will not interfere with the process."

The radio crackled to life. Orders coming back, Jake presumed, but the soldier interrupted quickly. "Sir, we have a situation here."

Jake took advantage of the distraction and jaunted, regretting that he wouldn't get to see the reaction on their faces as he disappeared into thin air.

* * *

John was fuming. "You'll have the whole military on high alert for us now."

Jake stared back, an idea starting to form. "They're on alert for _me_. That was my objective, I think."

"You think?"

"How many alien reception centers do you think they have? I let myself get caught. I'd lay odds they'll take me the same place they took the others."

John was shaking his head. "I can't disagree with the logic, but that's a hell of a risk."

"Only to me," Jake reminded him bluntly.

"We have no clue what they'll do to you. The risk is unacceptable. One of us should go." John glanced at Carol and Elizabeth, looking for one of them to volunteer.

That wasn't good enough for Jake. "What is your problem with me? I can do this."

"I don't doubt it. But you are not a member of this rescue team, this is not your risk to take."

Jake had no intention of letting go. "Yes it is. Because you're right. I did screw up, I did get us in to this mess. So if someone has to take a risk to get us out of it, makes sense it should be me. Anyway, you're overrating the danger. Ask this lot, I can talk my way out of anything."

"Lose the attitude, Jake. This is serious."

"Yes. It is serious. Tell me you have a better idea. Tell me why sending Carol or Elizabeth is less risky. Or tell me to get on with it."

"Aliens don't limp." Damon launched in with a reason.

Jake fumed at him. "So that's it, is it? I'm crippled, useless."

"No it isn't that." John wasn't sure Damon was helping here.

"The point here is to get caught, not run away. And I'm not going to turn into the one who always gets left behind just because I'm the one with the buggered knee. Anyway, I'm the one they saw, so it has to be me. If you want to argue with that, make it fast, because another minute and I'll go anyway."

John tried to keep his reasoning balanced. "We're out of options. I accept this might be the right way to proceed. I'm not questioning your competence, it will be equally risky whoever goes. But I don't appreciate your attempts to railroad the decision."

That was as close to an agreement as Jake was going to get. He pulled his watch off and offered it to John. "Best if I'm not caught with this, I don't want have to explain the joke engraved on the back to them."

John reluctantly took the watch, glancing at the back as he did so. The juvenile humor didn't impress him much. "Stay in constant contact. Remember that wherever you are, you aren't alone. Help can be there within seconds."

"And don't screw up. I know. I'll save you the bother of having to remind me of that one."

* * *

Jake jaunted from the tree line directly into the center of the crater. The crash site itself had been less than half a mile from the farmhouse, and Jake had gambled this would be a good place to get caught. It didn't take the soldiers long to spot him, likely the bright silver suit had helped.

"Excuse me sir, we'd like to speak to you," one of them called out.

"Trajectory and analysis of the impact crater confirms survivable landing. Four capsules made planetfall." Jake intoned back at them, wondering if he was overdoing the terse sounding alien thing. He figured he would have to loosen up a little, he was struggling to keep a straight face.

"Sir, can you understand what we're saying?"

"I understand you. The capsules have been moved from the crash site. What is their new location?"

"We will show you, sir, if you'd like to come with us."

Jake smiled to himself. ~Game on, guys,~ he telepathed silently to the others, and then allowed himself to be led away.

* * *

The others had retreated to the relative safety of the storage barn out behind Chris's nursing home. Carol was getting everything organized. "We'll need blankets."

Chris nodded, clearly struggling. "Easy, we can raid the supply closet here. I'll handle that. Just give me a minute."

"Holding out?" Kristen asked him quietly.

"Doing great, haven't had this much fun in years. But running back and forward to house like this, I just need to catch my breath."

John, meanwhile, was handling the logistics of the rendezvous with the rescue ship. "Elizabeth, contact them and have them make plans to come in and pick us up. It's going to have to be an atmosphere flight, I realize they won't be happy, but under the circumstances I don't see we have a choice."

Damon was puzzled. "Why can't you just jaunt up? A ship like that has to be equipped with inertial damping."

Carol chipped in with the explanation. "Nieb-gisgal and Gulal-ursan can't jaunt right now. And we might risk carrying them short distances, from here to Ambleside shouldn't be a problem, but we don't dare try to carry them all the way into orbit. Flying the ship inside the Earth's atmosphere, that's a whole different set of problems and dangers, but the risk there is primarily to the ship's hull and maneuvering engines. The Galactic Trig won't exactly thank us for returning in a ship that is going to need extensive repairs when we get back, but getting the survivors back safely is all anyone really cares about."

"Trig? Kal mentioned something about that." Kristen picked up on the conversation.

"Administrative council, made up of representatives of all the civilized races in our corner of the galaxy. A bit like the United Nations here on Earth, only, hopefully a little less bureaucratic. Rescue missions to closed worlds fall under their jurisdiction, they authorized this mission," Carol answered.

"The mission, but not exactly our presence on the mission." John clarified. "They would have objected because of the risk of us making contact with the locals, which is a strict no-no on a closed world."

Elizabeth rejoined the group having relayed instructions up to the rescue ship. "And of course we immediately made contact with Chris, and then with you and your friends. So they were right not to want to send us," she joked.

"So for all you criticize Jake right now, you're here doing exactly what you were complaining about him doing?" Damon pointed out.

John frowned. "I know you like him, but that young man has an attitude problem goes far beyond just being obstinate. Seems to me that Jake refuses to listen to anyone at all."

Kristen smiled. "There are only two people in the world get to tell Jake Laris what to do, that's his mother, and Damon here."

"And I struggle sometimes." Damon admitted.

"And yet you defend him to the end." John observed.

Kristen shrugged. "You put up with it. Because you know that when everything else falls apart, he'll still be there for you."

Damon could see John was thinking, but he couldn't see what John was thinking about. John was blocking the mind reading thing, keeping his thoughts to himself. Damon hadn't even known that was possible. Another reminder of just how much there was about telepathy that they didn't know.

* * *

The door opened and Jake saw Elaine Sierpinski for the first time. First time with his own eyes anyway. He'd seen her through Kristen's eyes, but he starting to understand why it was a bad idea to make judgements made on an indirect perception like that. What he sensed now was an enormously complex person. Not so much difficult to read, but very difficult to interpret.

He looked past Sierpinski to see a truck parked in the hanger behind her, the clearly identifiable shape of one of the capsules in the back. ~Got one,~ he shouted telepathically, hoping the others were listening. ~It's Kal, I recognize the markings on the capsule.~

~Any sign of the others?~ John called back.

~Not yet. I sense she's letting me see one capsule to try and hook me, I get the distinct feeling she's going to be looking for something in return for access to the others. She wants to negotiate some kind of deal.~

~They get nothing, and that isn't negotiable.~

"Where are the others?" Jake decided on the direct approach.

"Safe, they'll be here soon. In the meantime, I would like to extend to you our hospitality. My name is Elaine Sierpinski and I represent the government and people of the United Kingdom. On behalf of all the people of our world, I would like to welcome you to the planet Earth..."

~You want me to keep her talking here? Because I think the problem will be getting her to shut up,~ Jake observed cynically.

~We need to know if the others are nearby,~ John replied. ~If we can establish that they are, that's small enough of an area to search in the four hours we have left, we can risk a confrontation. But we have to be completely certain.~

"How long until they get here?" Jake completely ignored the pleasantries. "We don't have much time, the stasis only delays infection, they need treatment, and they need it soon."

"I'll do all I can to speed things up as much as possible. It won't be long. Not long at all," she smiled politically at him. "In the meantime we have somewhere you can be more comfortable while you wait, where we can talk," she held out a hand.

Jake sensed, well, not complete truth, but no overt lies either. There was something she was holding back, but he couldn't work out what it was. She was definitely stalling. He looked blankly at Sierpinski's hand remembering the ribbing he'd got for his reaction when Elizabeth had done that. On this occasion the hesitation worked really well, it made him look like just another clueless alien, Sierpinski took the opportunity to show him how to shake hands.

"My name is E-akub," he informed her, trying to make his name sound more kind of alien, more the way Kal had said it.

"Who do you represent, who are your people?"

"I represent no one. My job is to recover the survivors from the crash, that is all."

Jake could sense his answer frustrated her. She could dish out non-specific answers, but she couldn't take them. And she was used to being able to bully people into giving the answers she wanted, Jake could sense that as well.

Jake quickly surveyed the area and reported back. ~Two guards, they stand outside. There is one surveillance camera in here, I can freeze that, practiced that on my webcam at home for occasions like this. They'll spot the time code has frozen, but that should give you long enough.~

John acknowledged. ~We're ready to move in as soon as you give the word you're clear.~

"Show me where I can wait. But understand that my patience is limited. I intend to leave here with the survivors within four hours, I will do so with or without your help," he spoke flatly and unemotionally.

"This way," she smiled.

Jake sensed the smile was a fake one, the ultimatum had worked. He already had her on the defensive, this was going to be easier than he'd expected. He allowed himself to be led away, listening for the garage door to finish closing behind him.

~It's all yours, guys. I jammed the lock on the garage door as well for good luck.~

* * *

John stood guard by the door listening for anyone coming. He didn't expect the process of recovering Kal to take more than a minute or two.

For all his earlier frustrations with Jake, John had to acknowledge that the boy could handle himself under pressure. He watched Elizabeth and Damon unsealed the capsule. Each took one of Kal's hands and they jaunted silently out. The two of them made a good team. And for all his arrogance, Jake was a team player as well. The way he'd been sticking up for Kristen, the way he was getting on with the job and not letting his obvious frustrations with John get in the way of that. Those were all qualities John could respect.

John quickly resealed the capsule then headed back over to the garage door to release the lock, the less evidence they could leave of their presence the better. It took him a moment or two, locks had never been his thing. He could have done with having Mike there. Mike had really wanted to come along on the rescue mission as well, but he wasn't exactly in favor with the Trig these days and Tikno had already bent enough rules to get John, Carol and Elizabeth along. Mike's problem was that his headstrong behavior made him too much of a loose cannon. A lot like a certain Jake that John was struggling to deal with right now.

John wanted a life. That was what this was all about. He wasn't past it, not yet. He just had to let go of the world he'd left behind, let the next generation take over that responsibility. Which would be easier if he could just convince himself that they were up to the task. He could see they had the potential, he just wasn't sure they had the dedication.

The lock clicked back, sparing John any more opportunity to reflect on his uncertainties. He jaunted away just in time. Someone had been quick on their toes, a technician had already turned up to check on the malfunctioning surveillance camera.

John arrived back at the barn to find Elizabeth had Kal lying on a blanket on the floor. Chris had just returned with water for Kal to drink, but Kal didn't look in all that great shape. Chris was out of breath from the activity, he looked in even worse shape than Kal.

"Don't even look at me like that, John, you're not sidelining me while there's still work to be done." Chris might not be telepathic, but he knew how John thought.

"You're too bloody stubborn to be sidelined. It'll be the death of you one day."

Elizabeth interrupted them. "It's no good, John. I can handle first aid, but we need a proper medic down here. I know that's against procedure, our medic is supposed to be a backup, and I know orders were that he didn't risk any exposure at all just in case he needed to be treating us as well as the survivors, but at this point..."

"We jaunted Kal out of there, and looking at him, we might have risked his life doing that. We know Nieb-gisgal and Gulal-ursan are in even worse shape. If there was ever a time to break the rules, this is it," Carol supported her.

John looked at the two of them somewhat in resignation. It had been difficult enough to convince their assigned medic to stay back on the rescue ship in the first place, if there was half a suggestion lives were at risk then he was no more likely than the rest of them to obey orders. "Alright, go ahead, have him jaunt down," John conceded.

* * *

Sterile, white, and about as comforting as a hospital facility. If Jake hadn't been so confident of his ability to jaunt away then this room would have made him nervous. The office doors were closed, giving Jake and Sierpinski some privacy, the guards hadn't come into the office area but Jake could still sense them lurking just outside. One wall of the office featured a large glass viewing panel into what looked like a hermetically sealed area for handling bio-hazardous materials. The glass looked inches thick, and the door that connected the office through to the observation area was more like a vault door. Set up inside the vault area there was a sofa and coffee table that looked like they had been hastily appropriated from the waiting room of a dentist, all that was missing was a stack of out of date National Geographic magazines to complete the effect. The vault door remained open, but Jake could see that was nothing more than a technicality, their idea of a waiting room was Jake's idea of a jail cell.

He allowed Sierpinski to lead him through into the vault, where he was at least able to sit down. His leg really wasn't holding out so well.

"You're injured, are you okay? What happened to your leg?" she asked him, offering him a glass of water.

Jake stared at her, distracted for a moment. She was..., it was spooky, she was the closest he'd ever come to finding a human attractive. Although her concern for him was more a nervous concern than a heartfelt concern. She was worried it was something her soldiers had been responsible for. Jake tried to think of an excuse. "Sky diving accident last week. Tore my leg off at the knee," he tried desperately hard not to break down laughing at how outrageous that sounded. "They reattached it, but they did a bit of a botch job, I'm going to have to go back so they can partially re-disintegrate the bones to try and straighten it properly. This limping around everywhere sucks." Jake hesitated. It hadn't quite worked right. He'd gone too far the other way, too colloquial, she was getting suspicious.

"How did you learn the language so fast?"

Jake thought for a moment, he needed this bullshit to be convincing. "Monitoring broadcast communications, there's an enormous amount of chatter going on out there to analyze. Isolating the language structures was relatively easy."

Sierpinski seemed to accept the explanation. "Ku-esten told us you could monitor broadcasts, I hadn't realized the scale of the monitoring."

Jake smiled, she had pronounced 'Kristen' the same odd way that Kal did.

"One thing we of this planet would be very interested in , is knowing how we would establish a channel of communication with you. How do we get you to listen to us? How do we send you messages directly?" she continued.

"Listen to you what?" Jake was confused for a moment, her mind became impossibly convoluted at times.

"We want to send a message, a greeting, an invitation..."

That made more sense. He shook his head, She was trying to ask about the process for establishing formal diplomatic relations. Like he had a bloody clue. "I'm not the one you need to be talking to."

"But you can relay a message."

Bloody cute of her to act like she could speak for all her species as well. "You represent everyone on this planet?" he asked cynically.

"No. But, I am authorized to speak for a sizable proportion of us. We want to establish peaceful contact..."

Bullshit. She was talking absolute bullshit. The more direct the lies, the easier it was to spot them. He needed to push her towards making more blatant defensive statements.

Jake figured Kal must have been rescued by now, it was time to change tactics. Time to go for the jugular. "I don't understand how you can say peaceful contact when you're holding three of our survivors hostage."

"They're not..."

"Not here. Right. Why aren't they here? Monitoring broadcast communications we've also learned a lot about the politics and petty interminable squabbles on this planet, and we know how you treat each other. You arbitrarily show me one of the survivors to try and establish a perception that you hold a position of power, you then bargain with us for the lives of the other three, that is your way."

He could sense Sierpinski was rattled. "They're not here yet. We didn't know for certain if you were the rescue team, we only brought one capsule here to find out. Once we knew, I ordered the rest of the capsules moved here. There is no attempt at holding them hostage," she responded emphatically. She'd prepared the cover story well.

Jake's tactic had worked. The statements were unambiguous, the complexity had fallen away from her thoughts, and with it the cloud of uncertainty that kept Jake from being able to see what part of what she was saying was true and what wasn't. He could see it was all lies.

Jake smiled. She wasn't bad for a human, but there was no doubt she was human. He had his answer.

~Listen up guys, I have a confirmation. I don't know where exactly, but I can tell you for certain the others are here, somewhere not too far from this room. I'll keep her talking, try to find out more...~

John interrupted him. ~More importantly, try and keep her distracted. We'll move in immediately and start searching. Quietly if we can, but if not, just be ready to make a very fast exit.~ John advised.

* * *

Elaine Sierpinski was puzzled. For a start she'd expected the rescue team to consist of people a little bit older than the kid she was trying to communicate with. On top of that, she couldn't work out his agenda, he seemed happy to talk to her, even though he quite obviously didn't believe a word she was telling him.

"I don't pretend the transmissions you monitored are wrong, but you have to understand the context. Not all humans act that way, not all of us are bad people," she tried to counter him. She didn't expect the argument to work, he was too astute to fall for that, he understood context. He understood too damn much. He wasn't afraid either, there was something extremely arrogant about him. The other two had been visibly afraid. They had been alone and isolated, trapped on an alien planet. But this guy, this guy acted like he could do absolutely anything he wanted and there wasn't a single thing that any force on Earth could do to stop him. It made a certain sense of Ku-esten's words, with power like that why would anyone need violence?

"The sum of human knowledge is not that great. Individual people show an ability to be good, but the evidence is that as a race you are duplicitous. Anyway, I've now established the other survivors have been here all along. Your words were lies," Jake informed her bluntly.

She was about to argue, then thought better of it. The guy had seen right through her, defending lies with more lies wasn't going to work. Her orders at this point were meaningless.

"I spent as much time as I could talking to Kal-umun and Ku-esten..." Sierpinski started to explain.

"I know everything that was said. I know you agreed to help place them in stasis, but you were meant to leave the transponders outside the induction field. You were trusted, you betrayed that trust."

Sierpinski felt angry with herself. She'd blown it, she'd failed. Alright, she'd done everything she'd been expected to do, everything she'd been ordered to do. But that wasn't the point, she'd thrown away her life in pursuit of this moment. Now she'd thrown away the moment because of her slavish adherence to stupid human politics. Well, sod it. The Doctor was right, she had one last chance to redeem herself.

"You're right. I told what I thought was the truth at the time, but then afterwards I was ordered to break my word to you, and I followed that order understanding the consequences. I accept the result is the same."

Jake paused, he apparently hadn't been expecting that revelation. "You follow your orders, even knowing they're wrong?"

"That's a difficult concept for you to understand, isn't it?"

"Maybe it's just me, I tend to disobey orders a lot. I've got issues there."

Sierpinski stared at him. He came across as so genuine when he said that. He wasn't a representative of some unearthly alien culture any more, he was just a guy. A flawed and, very human like guy.

"I knew that trying to get something out of you in exchange for releasing the survivors was a mistake. I suppose I could have disobeyed the order, but that would have been as much of a lie. Humanity can't be trusted, and it's better that you understand that."

"So you obeyed orders _because_ you knew they were wrong?"

"That's about it. Ku-esten was right, as a planet, as a species, we're not ready for this. We're too stupid and too juvenile to deal with our own international relations, let alone interplanetary ones. Okay, I'm generalizing, there are a few responsible humans, but the number is small, and I wouldn't like to claim to be one of them. The people who gave those orders, they just don't get it. We aren't in any position to negotiate, we have no leverage. It doesn't matter what I do, it doesn't matter what anyone on this planet does. You'll walk out of here with the survivors from that crash, no one here has the power to stop you. I told them that, they wouldn't listen. They only way they'll learn the lesson is if they fail. I obeyed the order because I want them to fail, I want them to learn they're wrong."

The guy remained silent. Sierpinski was reassured by that, she'd managed to give him pause for thought, anyway.

The conversation was interrupted by the sound of a siren. The siren was closely followed by a beeping sound as the door leading into the isolation room slid automatically shut.

"Bollocks!" Jake exclaimed, looking around for the source of the alarm.

Sierpinski stared at him, puzzled by his sudden turn of phrase.

"Your language has some wonderful expletives. I'm growing to like it," he grinned at her.

The explanation wasn't entirely convincing.

"Your people?" she challenged him. "You have teams in here searching already, don't you. Well, that's what I would be doing if I were you." She'd been told to keep him busy, but all that time he had been the one keeping her busy.

Jake made no attempt at denial. "Yeah, don't think we expected to pull it off completely without being seen, but avoiding contact as much as possible seemed like a good idea at the time. Okay, where are the other capsules? It would really help if we didn't have to drag this out."

The more colloquial his language became, the less alien he seemed. Sierpinski shook her head. "No, that wouldn't work. I suspect the young Lieutenant has already been given orders to remove me if I step out of line. You don't need my help. I think the best I can do is sit here and let you keep me distracted. Obey orders, fail, and I'm okay with that. Anyway, we aren't going anywhere right now, that door is sealed and it only opens from the other side."

Jake looked across at the lock. "The red light designates locked, the green light designates unlocked?" He asked.

"Yes," she replied. Did he have some alien trick for opening locks?

"No good, too complex. To get it open, I'd need to have seen it opened at least once." He looked through the observation window. "Is that the key on the table out there?"

"Yes, you stick that in the lock from the other side, it opens. Simple." She tried not to sound sarcastic, there was no way they could get to the key, it was useless.

"No problem." Jake told her, standing up. She stared at him, puzzled. What the hell was he going to do. He looked like he was staring through the window. Staring and walking towards the window. The idiot wasn't slowing down and he was going to walk right into...

Shit. Sierpinski couldn't believe what she'd just seen. The guy had disappeared into thin air and had somehow re-materialized on the other side of window. There was no doubt at all in Elaine Sierpinski's mind any more that this guy was very, very alien.

She watched him grab the key from the desk and unlock the door to let her out. Sierpinski weighed up the alternatives, if she'd had any doubt she was doing the right thing, those doubts were gone. "Alright, I'll show you the way," she offered.

Sierpinski directed Jake to a door through to an adjoining room where the three remaining capsules were lying on the floor.

* * *

~Guys?~ Jake called out, fixing the image of the capsules in his mind.

~Jake, you safe?~ Damon shouted back.

~I'm fine. Quit searching, lock on, I've found them.~

Jake visualized as seven people materialized in the room. More than he'd been expecting. He'd caught something about Kal being revived and given a large dose of the dopamine stuff that seemed to keep him functioning, but that only accounted for six.

~Who's the guy with Kal?~ Jake asked Kristen.

~The rescue ship's medic. Adam, I think they said his name was,~ she replied.

Kal and the medic guy had immediately released the covers on the capsules containing Nieb-gisgal and Gulal-ursan and were checking on their condition.

"Silence, and yet you have the look of people talking to each other. Telepathy?" Sierpinski asked.

~It would be better not to answer.~ John reminded Jake.

~She's already worked it out. At this point, there's still a chance she can help us. I trust her.~

John was circumspect. ~That may be, but the less she knows, the better.~

"And you'd already recovered two of your people."

"They were teleported out some time ago. The others aren't in any condition to teleport."

"So how do you get them out of here?" Sierpinski didn't appear interested in shutting up any time soon.

Jake had no idea what the answer was. He found himself looking at John.

~We need somewhere out in the open where we can rendezvous with the rescue ship. And we'll be carrying the two capsules, so we need to find the shortest route to get there. One of us is going to have to scout out the way, guide the rest of us out telepathically.~

~We need to move fast, the moment we move these capsules out of the induction field their condition is going to deteriorate fast,~ the medic reminded them.

~Which isn't going to be easy with the base on full alert,~ Carol pointed out.

"We need a large open area to rendezvous with the rescue ship, and the most direct route to get there." Jake asked, gambling that Sierpinski would help.

John frowned, but didn't reply.

"Parade ground. One corridor, two sets of doors. It'll take about two minutes from here. But the way won't be clear. I don't know what their orders are to stop you, I ordered weapons down, I can't reassure you that order still stands though."

John finally spoke out loud. "Four of us is enough to hold off against light sidearms if we have to," he reassured her.

Jake, Damon and Kristen stared blankly across at him. He clearly knew what he was talking about, but they had no clue how that was even possible.

~We're taking a risk, I want this unanimous.~ John proposed.

Carol, Elizabeth and Adam responded quickly in the affirmative. Kal nodded.

~What about the rest of you? This is your decision as well.~ John turned to Jake, Damon and Kristen.

~All for one and one for all.~ Damon caught Jake's eye then turned back to John. ~I'm in.~

Jake and Kristen looked at each other, neither really wanted to be the last to answer. Jake deferred and allowed Kristen to answer first before adding his own okay. He was acutely aware of John watching him the whole time.

~Jake, Damon, Kristen, Kal, you four carry Nieb-gisgal and Gulal-ursan between you. The rest of us will act as escort.~

Jake looked at John, betraying a certain frustration at John's over protective attitude again.

~I'm happy to switch if you feel comfortable with your ability to stop a bullet,~ John suggested.

~Last time I stopped a bullet, I did it by getting my knee in the way.~ Jake conceded. ~I'll let you take that one.~

* * *

For a moment it looked like their luck was going to hold. They made it outside, almost as far as the parade ground before they encountered opposition.

"Halt or we'll fire." The soldier called out. There was a stand off.

~Be ready, just in case.~ John warned everyone.

Jake was aware John had addressed the message to more than just the eight of them stood there.

They waited in silence, surrounded, no one moving or speaking.

"Soldier, stand down." Sierpinski tried to see if she had any authority left. The lack of any response gave her the answer she was looking for.

The Lieutenant arrived, looking somewhat nervous. "Step away, Ms Sierpinski."

Sierpinski glanced up at Jake, who nodded. There was no need for her to stand with them. She walked off to the side, she refused to stand with the soldiers.

"You two, move in and check them for weapons." The Lieutenant ordered.

Two soldiers stepped forward. Carol raised her hand in a stop gesture, the soldiers ignored it. She winced as they walked into the invisible telekinetic wall she had placed in the way.

"Make ready." The Lieutenant ordered. The guns were raised.

Sierpinski was uncomfortable. She didn't quite figure either side quite had the measure of the other. "Lieutenant, you aren't going to achieve anything."

"I have my orders."

"To kill them?"

"The weapons are defensive only, we will only open fire if provoked. Do not threaten us."

"And you can't see it, can you? That the only threatening, provoking actions going on here are yours. "

"I have my orders."

Sierpinski turned to address John and the others. "I'd like to tell you they won't use the guns, that they aren't that stupid, but, I'm afraid they really might be that stupid. I'm sorry."

John sighed, more disappointed than anything. ~Looks like we might need that backup after all.~

The ship materialized from hyperspace, hovering ominously over the ground, creating a shadow where they were all standing.

With blinding speed a hatch slid back in the side of the shop and with a rotating motion something that distinctly resembled a much bigger gun slid out.

There was no hesitation, no warning, no quarter. It swung in an arc and had fired fifteen times within a fraction of a second. Fired at each one of the armed soldiers. Each blown off their feet as the energy bolt impacted.

The Lieutenant pulled himself to his feet, clearly surprised to still be alive. He looked around for his gun, but it was quickly apparent it wasn't there. He reached down for his sidearm, that was missing as well. The energy bolt had completely destroyed the weapons leaving the soldiers completely unharmed.

Sierpinski watched, and smiled. In her own way, she figured she'd won. No question now, they'd listen to her next time. Not that there ever would be a next time.

The main hatch of the ship opened and a ramp descended. John gestured, and Nieb-gisgal and Gulal-ursan were quickly helped onto the ship.

"I'm..." the Lieutenant blustered, "I'm sorry. Can we just talk about this?"

John stared blankly back, trying not to laugh at the Lieutenant's naïvety.

"There's no point, Lieutenant. We just burned our bridges." Sierpinski reminded him. She felt sorry for him, he'd completely lost control and yet was determined to try and carry out his orders to the last.

"I was just trying to, to have a chance to talk. There are so many questions we have."

"We aren't going to get any answers. Not that make any sense to us. They have power beyond our ability to comprehend."

"They can help us to see, help us to learn."

"But you won't, will you?" Sierpinski addressed the question at John, already knowing the answer, but still asking for the benefit of the Lieutenant.

"Our report will recommend against contact with this world."

"At least leave us the capsules, we can analyze the technology and..."

John interrupted him. "We can't allow technology like that to fall into the hands of primitives."

"You're worried we'd turn the technology against you?" Sierpinski wondered out loud.

"Not really." John admitted. "Judging by the mess this planet is in I think you're more a danger to yourselves than to us."

"Very true." she conceded. "And I don't get the impression we'll see you around here again, either, right?"

"Your world is too dangerous, too primitive. We won't be back. Not any time soon, anyway."

The Lieutenant shook his head. "Then when? Sooner or later you're going to have to deal with us, sooner or later we'll find a way to travel out into space."

One by one the figures had walked up the ramp into the waiting space ship, only John and Jake remained.

"Your science, in which you pride yourself so greatly, is a long, long way from being at a level where you could leave this planetary system, let alone cross the distances between stars. It will be centuries before we need to concern ourselves with you." John informed the frustrated Lieutenant.

"And who knows, by the time that happens, you might have evolved some sense." Jake added.

~Based on the evidence though, I wouldn't count on it.~ John replied silently, and avoided looking directly at Jake.

Not entirely appreciative of the slight, Jake nodded curtly, gave one last smile at Elaine Sierpinski, and headed after the others onto the ship.

~Signal the self destruct on the capsules and beacons.~ John gave the final order, and without another word retreated into the spacecraft. The ramp retracted, and the ship seemed to shimmer and vanish, leaving the soldiers still staring in disbelief, and leaving Elaine Sierpinski bemused.

Seconds later the capsules and beacons that had been left behind imploded. A flash of light too bright to look at, but no sound, no shock wave, the surroundings weren't even singed. But of the capsules and beacons there was no evidence remaining that they had even existed.

* * *

Sierpinski, like the Doctor before her, was packing up her desk. The Lieutenant knocked hesitantly.

"Yes Lieutenant," she waved him in. She couldn't say she bore him any malice. Like so many before him, he was guilty of nothing more than following orders.

"I, understand you're heading out, I just wanted to say, not as a Lieutenant, but as me, I wanted to say sorry. What I did, it was nothing personal. It wasn't the outcome I would have chosen."

"You and me both." Sierpinski agreed. "Apology accepted, Lieutenant... I don't even know your name. Doesn't matter. I'm no longer on duty either. Happy to be getting out of here."

The Lieutenant was reflective. "They didn't know what they were doing, did they, the people giving the orders? You did, and no one was listening. The people at the top never take the blame though, I'll probably be discharged for my part in this mess."

"Lieutenant, I fully intend to take the fall for this one, you'll be exonerated." Sierpinski wasn't worried, the Lieutenant had followed orders, he'd keep his job. "But before you go thanking me for that, my motives are selfish, you get to keep your job, and I'd say that means you get the shitty end of the stick here. Because if I've learned anything the last three days, I've learned that the job is a bunch of crap. There is more to my life than my job."

She was pleased to see her response had caught the Lieutenant off guard. Her own future, though, was more in doubt. They'd never trust her again, not completely, and that would mean the end of jobs like this one. Not that it mattered any more, the one dream she'd had in life had come true, for what it was worth, and it was time to move on. Being pushed out at this point was probably the best thing that could happen to her. She would have to find another challenge in life, and maybe this time she could start out with more reasonable expectations.

The Lieutenant turned to leave. "Not exactly the way I expected the weekend to turn out," he admitted. "I'm still not sure I really believe any of this happened. Still not entirely sure exactly what did happen."

With that, Sierpinski could agree. "I don't think any of us will ever really know. Except..."

"What?"

"Except when I look up at the stars at night, I think I'll feel a little less lonely in future," Elaine Sierpinski concluded, feeling happy, feeling hopeful, feeling free.

* * *

**I Wouldn't Want To Live Here**

* * *

"Get the ship back into orbit, it's dangerous to remain within the atmosphere for any length of time," John ordered, although it wasn't immediately clear who the order had gone to.

John, Carol and Elizabeth seemed to be immersed in making a report on the success of the mission, Kal was assisting Adam with getting Nieb-gisgal and Gulal-ursan into a more stable protective environment. Jake, Damon and Kristen found themselves standing on the cargo deck feeling somewhat disconnected from what was going on around them.

Jake finally had to interrupt. "So what happens to us?"

"You, young man, go home." John stated bluntly.

Jake resisted the temptation to get wound up already. It wasn't easy. It almost didn't matter what John said, it was going to get him wound up.

Carol once again jumped in to try and head off a confrontation. "We have to get back to Chris, pick up the equipment we left there, say goodbye. We'll drop you off."

"Any chance you could land us nearer to home?" Damon asked. "Beckindale isn't exactly an easy place to get back from."

"This isn't exactly a number nine bus, I'm not risking any more atmospheric trips. We still have the inertial damping projector set up, we'll use that, we'll jaunt down." John answered.

"We have about two or three hours of exposure time left. That's enough to jaunt them anywhere the belts have a program for." Carol was sure John was being more awkward than he needed to be, but she wasn't going to accuse him of that directly.

* * *

A light formed in the darkness. Six lights, growing stronger. Six figures materialized, solidified, and used the flashlights they were carrying to scan around the room that they now found themselves in.

"Where are we?" Kristen asked, trying not to cough as the dust caught her throat. She was momentarily concerned they'd landed off target.

John reassured her. "The basement of Debenhams. Westfield, London."

"What exactly are we doing in the basement of Debenhams?" Damon asked.

"That's where the inertial damping projector was configured for, it would take too long to reset it," Carol explained.

"Long story." Elizabeth cut them short. "I'll head on up to see Chris while John takes the kids to show them the vault. You coming Carol?"

"I think I'll stick with John." She made no comment about needing to be there to stop John and Jake strangling each other, by now it went without saying.

"I'll come along, if that's okay?" Kristen jumped in.

"Fine." Elizabeth smiled, more than happy not to be heading off alone. "We'll meet the rest of you there in half an hour."

Jake glanced at Kristen, then at John. "Hold up, Kristen, I'll head with you. Only one of us needs to know about this vault, Damon's the responsible one."

* * *

"That all appears to be in order, sir." It was the same clerk they had spoken to the day before. John nodded and headed over to the others.

"It was a safe place for us to store things in case we ever had to come back, but now, more than anything, it's here in case Stephen ever does come back. Let him know how to get a message to you, and warning him about the dangers of the prion infection," Carol was explaining to Damon.

"Where exactly is this Stephen now?"

"We don't really know, it's not easy to explain. We do know it's a dangerous place, Megabyte warned us of that much. If Stephen does make it back, the secret of how to get there has to be destroyed. If he can't destroy the secret, then one of you will have to finish the job. Whatever else happens, no one else can ever be allowed to go there. Too many people died last time."

Damon stared at her, looking puzzled. "That's kind of cryptic."

Carol was subdued. "We know there's something bad there, but no one ever survived to tell the tale. Cryptic is all we know."John picked up the warning, "What I'm worried about is your friend Jake. He comes across as a little headstrong. If he finds out the secret of the way there, I can see him charging in to rescue Stephen whatever the risks. But he seems to listen to you, so you have to try and make sure, Carol isn't exaggerating, you must not go there, not any of you."

"Without even knowing where there is?"

"I know. But this is important."

Damon swallowed back. He didn't want to make trouble but there was something he had to say. "Look,' he started, "Jake isn't as irresponsible as you think he is. I'm not trying to defend him totally, he does do stupid things at times, and I don't want to get into an argument with you. But you're not, and it's none of my business why, but you're not giving him a fair chance."

"There are reasons..." John started.

~Sorry for interrupting, but we have a problem. You need to get here now.~ Elizabeth shouted abruptly, telepathically, preventing John from finishing his explanation.

~We're on our way.~ Carol replied.

* * *

"Is this a hospital?" Damon asked as they materialized out of sight under a staircase.

"It's Chris." Elizabeth explained, greeting them. "Another stroke. The ambulance was there when I arrived. The paramedic wasn't thinking his chances were all that great."

~What's a stroke?~ asked Kal. He had jaunted in along with Adam moments after Damon, John and Carol had arrived.

Adam supplied the answer. "Cerebral thrombosis, or cerebral hemorrhaging."

"Kal, you shouldn't be here. You're running up against the limits of your prion exposure levels." Carol resumed her headmistress persona.

Kal frowned at her. "Right, so we need to move. Do something. I wasn't exactly impressed with the hack job these humans did on Jake there."

"Adam, tell him to get back to the ship, he isn't even qualified," Carol insisted.

Adam shook his head. "Sorry Carol, but he knows enough to be able to help, and repairing cerebral damage like that, I could really do with the help."

"Risking himself in the process."

Adam was blunt. "I know the consequences of the prion infection better than anyone. I just found out today that's what killed my best friend. I'm not about to take any unwarranted risks with anyone's life. Not Kal's, and not Chris's either."

* * *

"Chris?" John asked gently.

The nurse looked sternly at the rather large party of people that had crowded into the room. "He can probably hear you, but I don't know he'll be able to respond. We've done what we can, and for now his condition is stable. You are welcome to sit with him, but I have to ask that no more than three people are in here at any one time. I'll be back in half an hour to check on him," she noted, indicating she expected them to be complying with the hospital regulations by then. She turned and headed out.

John sat by the bed. The nurse didn't know Chris, didn't know how bloody stubborn he was.

"Chris?" John repeated.

"You get to the other survivors?" Chris managed to whisper.

"They're safely on the rescue ship, they're going to be fine."

"Survivors rescued, you made contact with those new Tomorrow People of yours. Mission accomplished. They can watch out for Stephen, I can finally retire and finally get some peace and quiet," he joked. He fell silent, that was as much effort as he had left in him.

"Chris, you have to hold in there," John pushed. He looked across at Adam.

Chris made one last effort to speak. "I can't see any more, that last stroke took my sight. I can't live like this. If I thought there was a chance, I'd take it. John, I'm finished. It was a great ride, but the future is for the young. We gave the future a chance, couldn't ask for more than that." His breathing became more shallow.

"Chris?" John tried to get through.

Chris couldn't answer, but John could sense enough of what he was thinking. "No, Chris, it's not over yet. I'm not here to say goodbye one last time."

Adam moved forward and leant over the bed. He started to reach out, and sensed concern. "It's okay, I'm a doctor," he pointed out.

John smiled, he could appreciated Chris's uncertainty. "Really, much though he may not look it, he is medically qualified."

Adam placed his hand gently across Chris's forehead. He took a moment or two to judge Chris's condition. "Biggest problem is that there's still a fragment of shrapnel left in there. That's the reason your health has been deteriorating. The game's not over yet." Adam turned and called across, first to Kal, "we'll start with the sonic disintegrator. And everyone else, do what the nurse said, we need some room to work in here."

~Here.~ Kal held out the disintegrator.

Adam shook his head. "That's your job, I need you to get the blood clots sorted while I work on getting the shrapnel out."

~I'm not qualified, technically I'm not even a med student any more.~

"Judging by the way you managed to patch up Nieb-gisgal and Gulal-ursan, you bloody well should be. Get to work, that's an order."

Kal hesitated momentarily, then powered up the disintegrator.

* * *

"You think Kal will end up like that Adam one day? I mean, Adam all responsible and a professional medic. Kal completely irresponsible and going out drinking and having sex with the headmaster's daughter." Kristen pondered as she brought Jake a cup of coffee in a paper cup.

Jake smiled. "He's responsible. He's just, he's been putting off the moment he has to give in to it. He's afraid. Afraid of the unknown. Afraid of the dragons that lie in wait there."

"We all have our dragons."

"That Adam's got Kal worked out, anyway. Pushing him to help out. I think I like Adam, even if he does come across as so responsible that he's boring."

Kristen seemed to think for a moment, thinking about how far she felt comfortable pushing Jake. "So exactly what is your problem with John then? I mean, I don't see much difference between Adam and John in that respect."

"I don't know. Some people you just clash with. I suppose it's the way John makes me feel, like I'm not up to the task."

"But you are."

"Yeah, but I don't want anyone knowing that," Jake joked. "So what about you. Three weeks on. You think you can deal with this? Deal with being one of the Tomorrow People?"

"What do you think?"

"I think you can. I think you already know that."

Kristen stared at him, that was typical bloody Jake, avoid answering a question he was uncomfortable with, then find a way to twist it round in a way that she couldn't argue with. And yet she couldn't help feeling reassured by him. "You always know exactly what to say to make people feel good, don't you?"

* * *

"Fun at the vault?" Jake asked.

Damon turned slowly to give Jake a look that said thanks for dumping me on my own with that one. "Yeah, stimulating. And now I've got a bunch of stuff that they left with Chris that I have to take back there. They treat me almost as badly as you do. Bloody bag man is what I am."

"Anything interesting?"

"Not really. Bunch of those belts they use to help with jaunting. Credit cards."

"Belts. I had a thought about those. And where's the money come from?"

"Bugger knows."

"Ah well, doesn't matter, not our cash anyway. We're better off without temptations like that anyway." Jake retorted sternly.

Damon smiled to himself. Jake could be an arse at times, but it was always reassuring to be able to sense he was a trustworthy arse if nothing else.

"For people hell bent on getting out and not returning to this planet they seem pretty caught up on keeping that vault active," Jake continued.

Damon shrugged. "It's pretty important to them, I guess I can see why. Two of them went on a mission, one looks like he died, one never made it back. I didn't exactly get any explanation what the mission was, just that something went wrong. But they really do still have a strong belief that this Stephen is going to turn up again one day."

"After fifteen years? If he does, I'll eat my underpants." Jake stated bluntly.

Damon was unimpressed. "Yeah, well he won't, will he, much as I hate to be pragmatic about that. So your offer isn't exactly dangerous risk taking."

"I'll eat your underpants, I'll eat your dirty underpants while they're still warm."

Damon was reluctantly impressed. "Now that is confidence."

* * *

"What about the belts. We could just stick them in the vault, sure, but how about we could actually make some use of those?" Jake asked out loud as he and Damon rejoined the others.

John was measured in response. "The belts aren't going to be much use to you without help, and we have no time left to teach you. There are only two ways of programming them. The easy way is if you have a computer that can interface to them telepathically, which you don't have. The only other way is manually, and that takes years of practice. It's pretty dangerous if you don't know what you're doing."

"Jaunt into solid rock..." Jake started to suggest.

"Which proves my point that you don't know what you're talking about. It isn't possible to jaunt into solid rock using a belt any more than you can walk through a brick wall. You just bounce off, which will generally get you stuck in hyperspace, and I assure you is something you don't want happening."

"You love making me feel like an idiot, don't you."

"Will you two just stop arguing," Elizabeth finally snapped. "Can't you both see there are more important things in life than this endless squabbling?"

* * *

John gestured at Jake, and led him around the corner away from the others. "I think we need to talk."

"You're still pissed off because of the gamble I took." Jake could read some of what John was thinking.

"Can we have this discussion without the language please?"

Jake bit his tongue. The temptation to retaliate verbally was strong. But he could see there was no malice in the request. The guy just had a different set of values. And Jake figured he ought to have learnt a lesson or two about being tolerant over the last few days. "Is it okay if I swear in alien?" He asked.

It was light hearted without being too snarky. John seemed to relax slightly. For the first time the two of them had managed to exchange a couple of sentences without totally winding themselves up into a confrontation. "I won't pretend I approve of risky behavior like that. Especially not from you."

"So you really are treating me differently?"

"Damon and Kristen do. I've been watching. They both look up to you. You set the example, they follow."

"Damon follows if he feels like it. Other times he's the one ordering me about. Kristen, she's still a bit nervous of me, haven't known her that long. She'll be telling me to piss off sooner or later." Jake hesitated, "sorry about the language."

The apology seemed to resonate with John. "They will both argue with you, they will both have their limits if you push against them. But they both respect you, and they both trust you more than I think you realize."

"Right. Where is this conversation going?"

"Jake, what you did was ill-considered and irresponsible. It also most likely saved the lives of Kal and the others, I won't deny that. You clearly have your head screwed on when it comes to making difficult judgment calls like that. I'm not asking you to change that. All I am asking is that you recognize that there are people out there who are watching everything you do. And you do them a disservice when you casually dismiss the seriousness of your actions. I realize it is all part of the bravado, but it sets the wrong example. You have that innate quality that leads people to respect you, and in time, as there are more and more new Tomorrow People breaking out, the example you lead by will become more and more important."

"That's what this is about? You think I'm some kind of leader? I'm no leader, I have no interest in being a leader of anything. I like to keep my head down."

"Yes, I can see that. But it's already happening. Walking headstrong into the middle of a bunch of soldiers with the intention of getting caught is not an example of keeping your head down. You did it because you had to. And when I first encountered you, you had the kind of cocksure attitude that came across as all bravado and no substance. I can now see that was all part of an incredibly good front you hide behind to try and cover up the fact that deep down you really are quite responsible. I can usually see what people are thinking, but you had me fooled, and believe me, I'm not easily fooled. You have a lot more courage than you give yourself credit for."

"That wasn't courage. I didn't do it because I was brave, I did it because I wasn't thinking too carefully about the consequences. Because if I had worried about the consequences then I'd have been too scared shitless to act."

"Well we are just going to have to agree to differ on that point. What matters is that there will come a time when holding everything together will have to become your first priority, and not rushing off on a one man mission to save the world."

"First, there isn't anyone else I could have sent. Secondly, I couldn't have sent anyone else because I didn't know what I was sending them to do, I didn't work it out myself until I got there. And thirdly, I have no right to send people to do things I haven't got the balls to do myself. And that is why I have a problem with 'leaders' and that is why I never want to be one."

"It wasn't exactly a role I would have chosen either. Sometimes I look back and regret that I was forced to grow up so quickly. It may surprise you to learn I was pretty irresponsible as well at your age."

"No, you know, doesn't surprise me really. I think that's why we clash. We're too similar."

"Yes, unfortunately I can see that."

"And you resent the fact that I still get away with so much."

"And you resent me coming here and telling you what to do, because I don't let you hide away from responsibility the way you would clearly prefer."

"What I prefer is academic to you, isn't it?"

"I can see you aren't convinced. To be honest, I wasn't expecting you to even listen this much, so I'll take what I can get."

"So, what, you just go and leave us on our own again?"

"This world we once called home, it's poisoned. We can't come back, we don't belong here. It's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live here any more."

"For someone who is never coming back, you seem intent on trying to pushing your agenda for the future on us."

"I suppose I am. It's hard to let go. I do care about this world, though, Jake. That will never change. I accept this is your world now. Your tomorrow. And the choices will be yours to make. Just don't go screwing it up. Alright?"

Jake smiled. John offered his hand. The moment felt more than a little awkward, both of them far too self conscious, but they managed to shake hands. More importantly they managed to mean it.

* * *

Elizabeth checked her watch and addressed Carol, "time is running out quickly here. Kal's already risking a dangerous level of exposure and the rest of us will be as well if we stay much longer."

Carol had little to offer her in the way of comfort. "We can start to evacuate non-essential people like you and me up to the ship now, but convincing anyone else to leave right now..."

"We should be ready to leave the moment we can, but I'm not leaving until..." John broke off as Kal stepped out into the corridor, still carrying the sonic disintegrator.

Kal glanced forgetfully at it, then quietly slipped it into his pocket before giving the others the news. ~We're done, as much as we can. His condition is, well, marginally better than he was. But, look, John, you need to go in there and talk to Adam.~

John silently headed into the room, no one spoke. It wasn't exactly a report that gave anyone much confidence things were going to work out.

Kal sensed the despondency. He figured he had to say something. ~What it is, with the right care, his condition can improve slowly over time. He'll never make a full recovery, there's too much deterioration already for that, but there's a chance he'll regain some mobility, he won't be stuck in that wheelchair,, he should even be able to see properly again. But not if he stays here. He needs proper care, not the care of these primitives.~

Kristen understood Kal's worries about human witch-doctors, but there was something that confused her. "Isn't that against the rules, this being a closed planet and all that?"

"Taking him back will break just about every rule in the rule book," Elizabeth confirmed.

"Which is why John and Adam are now in there trying to work out how we can get away with it." Carol added..

Kristen spotted another problem. "Whatever you do, won't it cause a minor panic here, patient going missing?"

"He won't be going missing. They'll think he's died," Adam supplied the answer as he and John came back out into the hallway. "The rest of you are going to have to get out of here, but I've had less exposure, I'll be fine holding out here for the morning. I'll fake it to look like he died during the night. Once they're convinced he's not just pining for the fjords, I'll get him out of here and rendezvous with the rest of you later."

"How do we explain this when we get back?" Carol challenged them.

John glanced uncomfortably at Jake before he answered. "We didn't get to that part. We worked out how to get him away from here. The rest, we'll have to work out as we go along. It's not the way I like doing things, but it has been pointed out that sometimes having plans is overrated."

Carol and Elizabeth stared at John, somewhat open mouthed. John actually agreed with Jake for once?

John had no time for explanations. "Our time is up, start the evacuation, we all need to be gone from here in no more than half an hour. And make sure Kal is the first to head back to the ship."

Carol turned to Jake, Kristen and Damon apologetically. "We're not going to have time to get you back to Ambleside."

Kristen shrugged. "We'll survive."

Jake looked pessimistically amused.

"What's you problem?" Damon asked Jake.

"My car is still in Ambleside. It's going to be lunchtime tomorrow before we get back there. I didn't pay for overnight parking. Should be fun."

John was circumspect. "Then tonight you will make an unsuspecting traffic warden inappropriately happy," he pointed out dryly.

"That's actually funny." Damon smirked.

"You're okay for old people, you know that?" Jake joked back.

Kal watched their exchange in amusement. ~Okay. Before I go, have we got time for one or three last cans of that stuff, what did you call it...~ He tried to pronounce the word, "beer?"

Carol frowned at Kal in disgust, then found herself looking directly at Jake and Damon. John might have gone uncharacteristically soft on Jake, but she wasn't going to. "Medics aren't supposed to have alcohol. Tomorrow People aren't supposed to drink. Just what on earth have you two been teaching him?"

* * *

~Hey, Jake.~

Jake looked up to see Kal now gesturing at him.

~In here.~

"What?"

Kal led Jake into a supplies closet and shut the door behind him. ~They're loading up to head out. This is goodbye I guess. So, we don't have much time. Drop your pants.~

Jake hesitated. "I didn't think you were supposed to do things like this?"

Kal grinned back at him. ~I'm not. Not supposed to have sex either, but I do.~

Jake dropped his pants, unsure of what to expect. He found himself mildly concerned what anybody might think if they came into the closet right now the way Kal was kneeling down in front of him. It had to look pretty dodgy.

Then he rapidly had to clench his jaw to avoid shouting out in pain. He couldn't work out why the sonic disintegrator should hurt more than the bullet that had originally shattered his knee, but it bloody well did.

* * *

Kristen managed to catch Kal alone for a moment. Time was running out and she intended to make the most of getting a second opportunity to say goodbye.

Kal appeared to be surreptitiously sneaking an alien looking medical instrument back into in a bag. He acknowledged her guiltily, maybe avoidantly. ~I'm supposed to be gone already, I need to head that way.~

~You going to be okay?~

Kal shrugged. ~Adam said he'd put in a word for me. I'm still going to struggle with the no sex thing, but, I graduate in two years. I think I can handle it that long. Mostly, well, maybe. Anyway, I think I can handle the apology now, that's the main thing. You?~

~Life's okay. Things are going to be a bit weird for a while, but I'll get used to it...~

~You still can't get past having inappropriate thoughts about me, can you?~

~No.~

~If it's any consolation... if I hadn't been on the run, afraid for my life, desperately trying to hold everything together, if I'd had time to notice... I think I would have figured you were pretty hot as well.~

~Yeah?~

"No shit."

Kristen laughed, and seized the opportunity to grab Kal and kiss him slowly. An alien he might have been, but he tasted pretty good, she noted.

Then reluctantly she watched him grab the medical bag and fade from view as he jaunted back up to the ship.

* * *

Jake limped back to the others who were ready to depart. If his knee was fixed, it absolutely didn't bloody feel it right now. He tried to ignore the pain.

"It's frustrating, we're out of time, and there is so much more I wish we could have told you." John was trying to wrap up.

Elizabeth offered caution. "Right now there are so few of you, your survival remains in the balance, you have to be careful, don't take unnecessary risks."

"You've worked out only a fraction of your potential, there is so much you still have to learn. But you'll get there, you just have to keep working at it." Carol was more upbeat.

Elizabeth smiled. "Remember you're a beacon for the future of humanity."

"But your first priority has to be to survive," John continued.

Carol smiled, remembering a time she had advised a young Stephen like this; "Then you can take over, stop wars and put the world in order."

"You really think it's that easy?" Jake wasn't convinced.

"Yes," Carol observed succinctly.

"Whose world order though?" Damon enquired.

"Ours." John smiled.

Jake shrugged. "Figures."

"I hope we do meet again. In more relaxed circumstances next time, preferably." John concluded.

"Goodbye," said Carol.

"Good luck," said Elizabeth.

"And trust no one," John imparted his final words of advice as the three of them faded from view.

"You overcome with emotion, Jake? That looks disturbingly like a tear in your eye," Damon asked, not actually sure he wanted to know the answer. It didn't exactly seem in character for Jake.

"Nope, got tears in my eyes because of how much agony my knee is in right now. Think I need to find some kind of painkillers before the pain kills me."

"This is a hospital, finding painkillers around here, is probably a lot harder than you would think." Damon observed wryly.

Kristen was trying to look around for a door. "So how do we get out of this place?"

Damon shrugged, "and where are we going to spend the night?"

"We'll just have to find a hotel or something." Jake seemed more worried about the pain still.

Damon looked at him disbelievingly. "In the middle of nowhere, this time of night?"

"What time is it exactly?" Kristen asked.

Jake went to check. "It's... Shit. Bloody shit. I didn't get my watch back. John's still got it. It'll be half way to bloody, bollocking outer space by now."

* * *

**Afterthought**

* * *

"No sign of a limp at all any more. How the hell are you planning on explaining that one?" Misako looked across the burger restaurant table at Jake.

"Hey, this is me, I'll work out a way. Somehow," he didn't sound convinced. He _wasn't_ convinced. He'd spent the best part of the last eight hours trying to come up with an excuse, and so far had failed. "Just one of those weekends, you know."

"Worked out in the end, though, didn't it? And you were only ten minutes late picking me up from the airport," she joked.

Jake snorted. "Yeah, did the speed limit all the way back. Couldn't afford a speeding ticket after what I had to pay to get my car back after they towed it. I'm totally charging that on John's credit card before we return it to the vault."

"Haven't you pissed him off enough already?"

"No. And I'm charging him for the bloody watch as well."

Misako laughed. "I've never seen anyone get you wound up like that before. I think I like this guy."

"Piss off," Jake smirked back.

"So you think they'll be back?"

"I don't know. They don't seem to think we need them, they're expecting us to fend for ourselves."

"And, let me get this straight, your problem with John was that he was interfering and over-protective?"

"Yeah, alright." Jake conceded. "He just expects me to take over on being the interfering and over-protective one."

"Someone needs to. Sounds like we have a big job ahead of us."

"I get where John is coming from, I really do. I just know what he wants is even possible."

"We can do this." Misako stated matter-of-factly.

"You think?" Jake pondered.

"Once we learn how to use this power we've got..."

"They knew what they were doing. They had control of their abilities to a degree we can only dream of right now. There were hundreds of them. And what happened? They all had to flee the planet in a panic, those that didn't escape were wiped out," Jake contemplated. "Seriously, without help, what the hell chance do you think the four of us have?"


End file.
